A Curse Can be a Miracle
by Danie7
Summary: The Curse is coming to fruition. How will it all turn out? KagInu MirSan Akiko & Kaori orgi. chara
1. Earth Shattering Changes

Chapter One: Earth Shattering Changes  
  
Disclaimer: I do not own Inu Yasha. All the characters therein belong to Rumiko Takahashi. Although later on there will be some characters I add that will be my own. Please enjoy the fic I worked very hard on it. Thank you, Danie  
  
Kagome watched as Inu Yasha leapt into the highest branch of a tall tree. His white hair stood out against his bright red clothing. She continued to watch as he sat down to rest. Fingering her own black hair, Kagome sat down as well and thought about the day. She let go of her hair to fiddle with the jewel around her neck. They had acquired another shard today. She looked at the jewel and wondered aloud. "How many more pieces are there?"  
  
Her school uniform was especially dirty from the blood that had gotten onto her after that battle. Thinking of which, reminded her that she was supposed to be taking a bath. She picked at the green material that made up her skirt. "At this rate Mom is going to go bankrupt just from getting me new outfits at every turn." She sighed looking at Inu Yasha again. "I had better go take that bath before he changes his mind about resting for the afternoon."  
  
The water was unusually warm and quickly erased the traces of dirt and grime that had covered her body. She leaned back, ducking her head under the water and sighing at the pleasant sensations it caused. She heard a small splash in the water and quickly jerked upright.  
  
Sango was undressed and scrubbing her body also. "I wanted to get clean." The taija explained quickly scrubbing her arms and shoulders. Kagome nodded and continued bathing. "I think I should do this more often.. I finally see why it appeals to you Kagome." She smiled as though she had revealed that she was Bill Gates the billionaire in disguise.  
  
"The water is unusually warm today. That's why it feels so good." Kagome commented ducking her head underwater again.  
  
"You take a bath in cold water?" Sango frowned as she finished scrubbing and climbed out. Wringing her hair out, she flipped it back over her shoulder and wrapped the towel she had brough around her body.  
  
"Yes. Its either that or be dirty." She followed Sango out of the water drying herself off with her towel. Kagome looked at her as if the choice should be obvious then she remembered she was in renaissance times. She figured things were going a little too smoothley and looked at the trees surrounding them trying to sense if Inu Yasha was there.  
  
"He's not there." Sango said bluntly as she finished pulling on her dress. She looked at Kagome and smiled. "He's still in that tree that he climbed in earlier." She picked up Kagome's bag and headed off toward Kaeda's village.  
  
Kagome watched her go. 'She probably thinks I'm right behind her'. Kagome relaxed against a tree trunk and focused on letting each of her muscles go lax. Once she was fully relaxed she released her pent up breath. Shoving the wet strands of hair out of her eyes, she watched the sun sink lower and lower in the sky.  
  
When the sun touched the tops of the trees, she climbed to her feet and went back to the village. Inu Yasha was the first to stand in her way, "Sure took you long enough." She raised her eyebrows and stepped around him continuing on her way. He huffed and followed her. "I never knew you could take so long. Sango was back here a few hours ago."  
  
"Yeah I can take long. I felt like relaxing, so I did." She tossed a glare over her shoulder; "I can take care of myself for at least a little while."  
  
"Well that 'little while' is all it takes for a demon to come and attack you. Didn't think of that did you?" He snapped back not liking her being so rude especially to him who saved her on a daily basis almost...  
  
"You didn't seem to think too much of it as you were still lounging on that tree when Sango came to bathe with me." Kagome retorted and was pleased to find that he couldn't come up with a reply quickly enough so he opted with his 'Feh,' which more or less meant that he thought the argument was over and he was superior as usual.  
  
She stepped in Kaeda's hut and sat down on the floor, digging through her pack for a brush. Finding it, she quickly straightened out her hair. Miroku sat near Sango, but was behaving himself for once which meant that something had to be up. Kagome put down her brush. "What? I got back okay?"  
  
"Are you okay, Kagome?" Miroku asked with an underlying tone of worry. Sango frowned at him having caught the tone as well.  
  
'What sort of stupid question is that?' she thought. "Of course I'm okay. Why wouldn't I be?" she asked looking at them expectantly. Sango and Miroku just avoided her gaze. Shippo made himself known by launching himself at her midsection. She smiled down at the kit and patted his head. "Hey Shippo." The kit looked up at her with worried, watery eyes. Sango and Miroku exchanged worried looks with each other wondering if the little kit was going to spill the beans. 'What is going on?' thought Kagome. Her worries only grew when Inu Yasha came to sleep inside. She stood up and glowered at them all, "What is going on?!"  
  
"Go to sleep, Kagome. You look awful." Inu Yasha commented while watching the door. His amber gaze fell on her when she didn't move. "I said- "  
  
"I heard what you said." She fumed. "That doesn't mean I'm going to do it though." Inu Yasha just stared at her. She glared at the entire group. "Be that way." She went over to her pack and dug out her CD player. Turning the volume on high she listened as hard rock music filled her ears. Inu Yasha sighed. 'At least she's not asking any questions.' He didn't sleep any that night and Sango and Miroku kept watch over Kagome.  
  
The next morning, Inu Yasha stepped outside to breathe in the clean morning air. 'I will never stay inside like that again.' He stretched and heard his back pop a few times. 'That stupid demon having me worried like that. Should've killed him sooner.'  
  
He recalled the words that had sounded in his and Shippo's head shuddering. That demon had seemed so threatening and serious then. He had noticed that the inu youkai they had just killed the day before which was something that he rarely did but it didn't surprise him that the face stuck with him. It looked almost like him and Sesshomaru but it had had green eyes instead of amber and it was a full demon. The body had been structured different. The young demon had been more stocky and muscular whereas he and Sesshomaru were leaner. The marks on his face were a livid purple.  
  
He looked back at where Kagome was emerging from the small hut. Her blue eyes were blurry from sleep and her limbs moved slowly and stiffly. Sango came out after her. Sango's giant boomerang strapped to her back. She was moving around much better obviously having been up a while longer than Kagome. Miroku stepped out after Sango stretching much like Inu Yasha had earlier.  
  
"Are we going to leave already? If we're gonna go I want to go now." Shippo called from Kagome's back. Inu Yasha came up to her and plucked the kit off of her.  
  
"Yes we're leaving now." Inu Yasha snapped and picked up Kagome's bike from the ground setting her bag in the basket on the front. "Lets go."  
  
"Which way are we going today Inu Yasha?" Kagome asked. She straddled the bike seat and put her right foot on its respective pedal. Kaeda stepped up to the hanyou and eyed him. "Be careful on this journey, Inu Yasha."  
  
Kagome shot death glares at his back. "What is going on Inu Yasha? And don't you dare try to avoid it this time Kaeda wouldn't have said that if she didn't know what was going on." Kagome eyed him as if she wanted to put her foot through his back.  
  
"Have ye not told her?" Kaeda asked not surprised in the least.  
  
"Told me what?" Kagome demanded. Openly glaring at the entire group. "You all know don't you?" She got off her bike and dropped it. "Where ever it is you guys are going, have fun without me as I'm not going where I'm not trusted." Kagome steamed and stalked off.  
  
Kaeda let out a sigh. "Inu Yasha that was a bad move."  
  
"What are you talking about Kaeda-baba? You're the one who said it not me." He glared at her when all they did was stare at him expectantly. "What do you expect me to do about it?" He crossed his arms over his chest.  
  
The entire group eyed him evilly for not already leaving to go fetch Kagome. Letting out a frustrated sigh he followed Kagome where she had left. Following her scent, he found her fuming as she sat on the lip of the well her legs dangling on the inside of it. He quickly rushed over and gripped her around the waist. "You're not leaving." She tried to get out of his arms but he didn't let her budge an inch.  
  
"You're not leaving." He repeated firmly.  
  
"I know I'm not leaving Inu Yasha. I wasn't planning on it." She huffed. He pulled her off of the well and set her away from it with him in between her and it. She sat down on the ground and looked at her feet. "Why won't you tell me what the problem is? It involves me I know it does because of what Kaeda said."  
  
Inu Yasha hunched down in front of her "Kagome." She turned away from him. "Listen we are going to tell you... just not right now."  
  
"Why not?" She faced him "It's not like I can't handle it." Her eyes bored into his. Inu Yasha looked away and muttered something she didn't catch. "What was that?"  
  
"I said... that I promise we'll tell you, but right now that is just too much to ask, okay?" he sat back on his haunches uncomfortable with their closeness. He sighed.  
  
"Whatever." She got up. "Are we moving so fast because of the problem?" He just nodded as he rose to his feet also. "Lets go." she called over her shoulder.  
  
He followed. "Uh, Kagome? You're going the wrong way.."  
  
"I am?" she turned around and waited on him to show her the right direction. He pointed towards a different patch of trees and she followed his direction. After a while of not getting to the village she turned around "Inu Yasha are you sure it was me who was going in the wrong direction?" She turned around and gave him an exasperated look.  
  
"Yeah I pointed you in the right direction. We're just not getting there." He looked worriedly into the trees. "Kagome.. don't move." He leapt down on top of her shielding her from the gigantic fang that had flown through the air at her. He glared up into the trees as he took her and leapt through the air trying to dodge all the fangs aimed at her. 'If just one were to touch her..' He didn't continue the thought afraid of the answer.  
  
"Inu Yasha what's going on?" she clutched the front of his haori tightly. Her head ducked back to his chest when a fang trailed too close and caught her hair. She squealed and clutched tighter. Once the squeal was out of her mouth, the fangs stopped. He leapt to the ground and checked her body. She repeated her earlier question.  
  
He ignored it and kept looking for any kind of scratch. "Are you scratched anywhere I can't see?" She looked worriedly down at him and shook her head.  
  
"Inu Yasha? Why are you looking.. like that?" She bit her lip chewing on it. He looked up at her and shook his head. "Don't you do that to me! What is this? I almost got hit with those things!" She fumed letting her anger pushing away her fear.  
  
"That was part of the problem Kagome. We have to go to get it fixed. I suggest you not leave like that again." He picked her up and turned around "We passed the village a ways back there." He leapt back up into the air and landed on solid ground directly in front of Miroku, Sango and Shippo. "We're leaving. Now." Sango put a hand on Kagome's shoulder assuming that Inu Yasha had told her. Kagome looked back at her and smiled. Miroku patted her other shoulder and Shippo attached himself to her arms as she followed Inu Yasha.  
  
She stayed quiet the whole time they walked. She ignored it when Sango and Miroku tried to talk to her. Inu Yasha glanced back every so often only to see her staring at him diligently. He ignored her the rest of the way keeping his eyes and ears open for any more attacks that could come.  
  
Miroku's staff jingled as he walked. Kagome looked at him. His black hair pulled back in a small ponytail gave off a blue sheen from the sunlight. His cursed hand waved in front of her face. She ignored it and looked in his brown eyes. The prayer beads on his hand jingled as he clenched his hand into a fist.  
  
Her attention shifted to Sango when she saw her move out of the corner of her eye obviously trying to get her attention. The demon exterminator stared back her. Her dark red eye shadow only made the stare that much more serious. Her dark hair whipping around in her face with the brisk wind caught her attention briefly before Shippo pulled at the front of her shirt shifting her attention yet again. His ginger brown hair was pulled back with a blue ribbon at the top of his head. His little furry tail wrapped around her arm. She smiled down at the kit watching his mouth move but not hearing any of what he was saying. As she watched his mouth move she heard the sounds of the forest around her grow stronger and a chill went through her skin. Looking around she decided it was just her imagination playing tricks on her and ignored it.  
  
They stopped for the night in a small clearing. She quickly unpacked her sleeping bag and dug out a pot for cooking whatever it was that Inu Yasha had caught for them to eat. She stayed up until her eyes dropped shut of their own volition.  
  
"Thank God she's out. I wouldn't be able to take her silence a moment longer." Complained Sango. "I feel so bad with all of this. It always seems like it happens to her.." Miroku nodded in complete agreement with the statement.  
  
"Well just so you both understand, she still doesn't know and her silence is her own way of revenge. She's just upset because she wants to know and she thinks we don't trust her or something like that." Inu Yasha spoke up.  
  
Miroku and Sango glared at him. "You what?!" they yelled at him in unison. He just shrugged and didn't say any more. Shippo ignored them and crawled on top of Kagome's sleeping form.  
  
"No wonder she doesn't trust us! With you not telling her, I wouldn't trust us either if I were here." Sango hissed at him, glaring angrilly.  
  
"Why didn't you tell her?" Shippo asked quietly so as not to wake her up. He would rather be eaten alive than chance that she would stare at him blankly like that again.  
  
"Because I'm still trying to sort this out and she shouldn't need to worry about it. After all I'm here to protect her. So what's there to worry about?" Inu Yasha just shrugged and leaned back against a tree, trying to appear nonchallant about it even though he was becoming worried that they didn't think of him as 'strong enough' anymore. "She won't get hurt with me around." He sighed weariness taking a toll on his body. "Get some sleep we're moving out early in the morning."  
  
"You need to tell her." Sango scolded.  
  
"If you want her to know so badly tell her yourself." Inu Yasha spat and was greeted with silence. "See not so easy now is it? So as you seem to not be so keen on telling her yourself you can shut up Miss Hypocrite." He mumbled as he relaxed and tried to sleep. Then he cracked open an eye and smirked at her. "Thanks for seeing it my way by the way." 'As long as we're all together Kagome won't be hurt and I won't have to worry.' After a few hours, he sat up and looked around when he heard the familiar slow breathing that meant the whole group was asleep.  
  
He crept over to Kagome. 'They say that people listen whether they want to or not while they're asleep.' He picked up Shippo and moved him to the other side of Kagome. He got close to her feeling her warm breath on his face. He inhaled deeply, "Kagome.." She sighed in her sleep. Feeling bolder he said her name again. "I don't want you to worry about what happened Kagome. I want you to know that you will always be safe with me no matter what.. I won't let anything happen to you."  
  
Her brows furrowed. "Inu Yasha...I..." she said sleepily not yet awake.  
  
"Just don't worry Kagome I will take care of you." A small smile graced her lips, obviously happy with her dream he thought.  
  
He ran a nervous hand over her cheek, and then quickly drew it back. 'Baka what were you doing that for huh?' He leapt up into the higher branches of the tree over her. 'Stupid Stupid she was asleep. She doesn't need you fawning over her while she isn't conscious of it. Ugh where did that thought come from? I don't fawn over anyone.' He sighed 'I must need sleep more than I had thought to be doing stuff like that. Yeah that's it.' He dropped off to sleep quickly with a slight frown marring his beautiful face.  
  
Kagome waited until she was sure he was asleep. She raised a heavy hand to her cheek feeling his hand on her face again. It had been so hard to keep from saying something. 'He would die if he thought you knew.' She thought to herself. 'Oh well he's just trying to keep you from whatever it is that could hurt you. He... just might care.' She quickly squashed the thought. 'Don't start thinking like that. You'll only get your hopes up and that's never good.' Miroku let out a particularly loud snore startling her. She snickered at him. 'Its amazing Sango doesn't wake up with a bear sleeping next to her. Oh well, they're going to tell me because if they don't I will never say another word to them again.' She smiled and went to sleep finally.  
  
Sango felt something gently stroking her backside. At first she couldn't identify what it was then realization struck and she sat up quickly. "HENTAI!" she squealed as she smacked Miroku.  
  
He picked himself up off the ground. "You didn't wake up when I tried to call to you so I figured I'd try something else to make you wake up. And now you are awake so I guess it worked." he said innocently smiling all the while. She just glared at him murderously.  
  
"Can't you keep your hands to yourself at all Miroku?" Kagome asked as she sat up, stretching and rousing Shippo in the process.  
  
"Stupid Humans... Can't you get up any faster?" Inu Yasha called down from his perch in the tree. "I've been waiting since dawn for you to get up." He leapt down and picked up Kagome's bag. "Fix something quick so we can get going." He shook the bag at her. She glared and jerked it out of his hands.  
  
She dug through the pack and pelted them all with granola bars. Miroku, Sango, and Shippo all glared at him for ruining Kagome's mood. She had actually been saying something to them, possibly forgetting about her little revenge. She stood up and put her sleeping bag away not eating. Inu Yasha quickly shoved his in his mouth and erased all traces of them having stayed there the night before. Kagome just watched not saying anything. 'What could bother him so that he feels he has to cover our trail?'  
  
They started moving following Inu Yasha through the woods. "Seeing as how Lady Kagome isn't talking to any of us." Miroku tried to hint. Kagome just ignored him as was expected. "Why are we going this way Inu Yasha?" he asked. Inu Yasha just gave him a wry glance. "To fix the problem of course why else would we be going?" He glared at Miroku for his stupidity. "And no I am not going to broach the subject with her so stuff it." He turned around and continued on in silence.  
  
Shippo unperturbed by the tension in the air leapt onto Kagome's shoulder. "Kagome? Did you bring any candy with you?" She smiled and patted him on the head. She stepped up behind Inu Yasha digging through her pack. She came out with a giant sucker. He quickly snatched it and licked it quietly. Miroku and Sango entertained themselves by reminiscing about past experiences they've had with youkai.  
  
Kagome dug out her CD player and put in a CD her friends burned for her. "Torn" by Natalie Imbruglia came out. She laughed at the first few lyrics.  
  
I thought I saw a man brought to life  
He was warm he came around he was dignified  
He showed me what is was to cry  
You couldn't be that man I adore  
You don't seem to know, seem to care what your heart is for  
  
Kagome cringed at how close it came to her feelings. She quickly changed the song and got "In the End" by Linkin Park. 'Wow I guess everything's depressing today.' She thought wryly. The next song was "Beautiful" by Christina Augulera. She grumbled and took the CD out. Rummaging around in her pack she found another CD and put it in. She smiled as more comfortable songs came to her.  
  
"What are you listening to Kagome?" Shippo asked only catching the notes of the song. When she didn't say anything he pulled her hair. "Kagome!" he yelled at her. She looked down at him silent. He pulled the headphones off her head and asked her again. She just put the headphones on his ears and adjusted the volume for his ears. He smiled and tried to sing along but failed horribly. Inu Yasha turned around at him yelling at him to shut up but Shippo couldn't hear over the music. Inu Yasha glared at her. "Why did you have to do that? Now he's probably going to make those horrible sounds until tonight." Kagome didn't say anything just held onto Shippo and smiled smugly.  
  
Inu Yasha glared he was certain she would've 'sat' him for that. Usually she looks for any excuse to slam him into the ground. 'Stupid girl I can hold out longer than you can.' He was already surprised she had held out this long without yelling at him or saying anything. He got uncomfortable in the gripping silence. Usually she was such a chatter box he had a hard time without telling her to shut up. now he just wanted to hear her jabber on like usual. 'Amazing the things you get so used to that you actually miss.' He decided to block the silence out by thinking of some more fighting techniques he could improve on. Later that night, Miroku saw a village and managed to convince Inu Yasha to stay there, instead of sleeping out in the woods like usual. He was hard pressed without Kagome's assistance.  
  
Sango was starting to worry about her silence and as soon as they were settled inside the best lodge she dragged Inu Yasha and Miroku outside. "We seriously need to tell her." She chewed her lip worriedly glancing every now and then at the inn where her best friend was.  
  
"If you want to give into her little fit be my guest." Inu Yasha snapped. "But I'm sure as hell not going to tell her. She can go on with this for as long as she likes, I don't care." The other two just glared at him. He crossed his arms over his chest. "NO. I refuse to tell her. And I know neither of you will so don't think about it." He started to walk away but Sango caught his hair from behind. He growled. "If you know what's good for you, you'll let go NOW." She ignored him and tightened her grip. He whirled around and knocked her hand off his hair. "Don't do that again." He growled. "I don't pull your hair to get your attention, do I?"  
  
"Tell Kagome." She stated point-blank. He glared and shook his head. Miroku came up behind the hanyou and put a hand on his shoulder. "She needs to be told by you. You can tell her and comfort her afterwards better than us."  
  
Inu Yasha snorted dryly. "I have no experience with 'comforting' people yet you guys believe I could do it better?" he asked incredulously. They nodded simultaneously. He glared "Well no matter what you say. I am not. I repeat am NOT going to breathe a word of this to her. Especially not now. I do not 'comfort' people. I never have and I don't see why I have to start now. Besides as I have said time and again I will not let anything happen to her. If I tell her she will worry over nothing. You hear that? Nothing."  
  
"Why not now? I don't see the reasoning. Besides, of course she knows you will protect her. That is not the issue." Miroku blocked his way of escape. Inu Yasha just glared at them.  
  
"Because if she won't believe me when I say I'll tell her later, then I won't tell her at all." he leapt over Miroku's head and into a tree so that they couldn't bother him. He could smell Kagome. She was coming up behind them. He groaned. 'I so don't need her coming around now.' He thought but he leapt down in front of her anyway. "Go back to the lodge Kagome."  
  
Kagome gripped her heart. He had just leapt down in front of her from out of nowhere scaring her out of her wits. She side stepped him and continued out into the woods. He followed her diligently. "I thought I told you not to go anywhere by yourself?" He drawled. Once Kagome was certain she was far enough away from everyone else she made hand motions for him to turn around.  
  
"If you can't say it I won't do it." She glared at him. Getting an idea she just shrugged and pulled down her underwear in front of him. His jaw dropped, as she took them all the way off and moved around behind the tree. He blushed furiously, she had just taken off her underwear in front of him. He blushed even more when he heard her using the bathroom behind the tree. 'Oops I guess I should've turned around huh?' He thought sheepishly.  
  
Once she was done she pulled her underwear back on and walked back towards the town. He just followed silently. Before they got too close she turned and faced him. He just stared at her feet. Kagome waited until his amber eyes met hers. While she was waiting, she just looked at his sword and the red outfit covering his body. How many times had that body and sword protected her? She wondered. His feet were very dirty from not wearing any shoes. The mud from the days journey was still caked on his toes and little flecks dotted the top of his feet. The claws on his fingers were digging into his palm. She got another idea and put her hand over his.  
  
He quickly looked up at her surprised. "What?" he said quickly. Now that she had his attention she let go of his hand. "Inu Yasha? Why won't you tell me yet? It's been nearly two days since I've said anything and I'm tired of it."  
  
"I never said you should stop talking. And besides I did say I would tell you soon anyway. Throwing a fit isn't going to help that along." He smiled inwardly she was going to break soon.  
  
"Fine." She ignored him and walked back to the village ignoring him again when he tried to talk. Miroku and Sango noticed her less than happy look as she sat down on her sleeping bag and closed her eyes waiting for the others to fall asleep.  
  
After what seemed like eternity to Kagome, she sat up. Shippo started to stir so thinking quickly, she took off her sleep-warmed shirt and wrapped him in it setting him gently on the floor. She got up and moved outside by herself. 'If he won't tell me after this I swear I will sit him until his back breaks.' She vowed silently. She scanned the trees quickly for any traces of him. Finding none, she moved into the woods by herself.  
  
The silence and darkness were all encompassing and started to wear on her imagination. She heard a twig snap behind her. She purposely ignored it. 'That had better be Inu Yasha or he is in so much trouble.' She continued on not looking back even though she could feel something was following her. Her paranoia grew with every step she took and she couldn't help but think of the strange feeling she had felt earlier. 'Maybe I wasn't just being freaked out.'  
  
After she was too far away from the village for anyone other than Inu Yasha to hear her, she felt something fly by her head. She whirled around and was greeted by darkness. "Who's there?" she ventured trying to keep the fear from her voice. She sensed something moving just out of her line of vision.  
  
She turned and started walking again. Another thing whizzed by her face. Fear peirced her heart. This time she didn't turn around she just ran trying to get away from whatever it was that was following her and obviously trying to do her bodily harm. She heard laughter ringing behind her just before something impaled her in the back. She felt the fang tear through her muscles and crack one of her ribs. She landed on the ground with a thud. She noted dully the blood pooling around her head and body. "Inu Yasha.." She called weakly before her vision blurred and went black.  
  
Miroku and Sango came out after Shippo had woken up to find no Kagome. "INU YASHA!" they yelled at the top of their lungs. The hanyou jumped down from a nearby tree and looked at them angry until he saw their expressions. He rushed inside the lodge but he already knew she wasn't there. He rushed out quickly. "Do you guys know where she went?" 'Baka baka baka you knew better than to leave her to her own devices.now she's probably dead... all because you left baka baka baka.'  
  
"No, but Shippo was the first to find that she was missing." Sango supplied but he was already gone following her scent. "Come on Kirara." Sango climbed atop her transformed demon-cat. "Try to keep up with Inu Yasha if you can." She said quietly. Images of a mauled Kagome kept replaying in everyone's mind.  
  
"Well if she's hurt I almost pity the person who did it. Inu Yasha is going to tear them to shreds." Miroku tried to lighten the mood unsuccessfully. He gripped Sango's hips as they took off, a grim look on all of their faces. They had to hold back from panicking. 'Kagome might just be off in the woods for a little adventure.' Miroku tried to think on the bright side but failed to convince himself.  
  
Inu Yasha smelled the fear that permeated the air. "Gods Kagome be-" the words died in his throat as he saw the fang buried deep in her shoulder and her face down in her blood and dirt. He rushed over to her picking her up and cradling her to his chest. "Please be alive Kagome" became a chant as he placed his ear over her heart listening for a beat. It was there... but extremely weak.  
  
'All that blood, how can she still be alive after all that blood?' Tears streamed down his cheeks, 'She's alive she hadn't left me alone.' He clutched her tighter and quickly pulled the fang loose. He smelled the poison on the fang. "Where is that stupid flea when I need him?" He heard a small panting just by his ear.  
  
"Lord Inu Yasha I just heard the news.. and I came as fast as I could." Myouga looked at Kagome in Inu Yasha's arms "L-Lord Inu Yasha? Is she-?"  
  
"She's alive flea." He glared at the flea for even suggesting a thing. "I need you to suck the venom out of her body." The flea leapt down looking at her wound. A small sigh escaped him. "I am terribly sorry Lord Inu Yasha but I can't help her."  
  
Inu Yasha snatched the flea. "Don't you DARE say that. I need to make her better and I can't think of anything better than you healing her by taking out the poison from her body like you did for me when I was poisoned by the spider-heads."  
  
Myouga just shook his head. "I'm sorry my Lord but the poison has traveled through too much of her body for me to be of any use. But there is no need to worry-" he was cut off by Inu Yasha putting his ear to Kagome's chest again.  
  
A look of absolute relief flooded his features. "Her heartbeat just got stronger." He clutched her to his chest. "Kagome I swear to God if you get up I will tell you everything." He vowed. Myouga's face dropped. "What's wrong with you flea? Did you want Kagome to die? She's going to be better." Myouga shook his head and hopped down muttering under his breath. "What's that flea?"  
  
"This is not good Lord Inu Yasha." The old flea felt his age hit him in a way he hadn't felt since Inu Yasha's father died. His heart sank as he looked upon Kagome and thought of all the things that may happen to her.  
  
"What do you mean its not good? This is great!" Inu Yasha replied shocked that the flea would think it wasn't. "She's going to be better. That is great news."  
  
The flea shook his head again and walked a ways away. "Kagome needs to be taken back to the village. Kaeda will be able to help. I suggest you abandon whatever you were doing here and get there as fast as possible. Bring the thing that inflicted her wound also." Inu Yasha looked around for the fang but it had disappeared.  
  
"Its not here." He looked worried. "What's wrong with Kagome, Myouga- jiji? Tell me... What can I do to make her better?" He looked down at the pale girl in his arms. Her lips were bright red against the white of her skin. Her black hair and eyelashes stood out in stark contrast against her pale face. He buried his face in her neck feeling her cold skin against his warm self he tried to cover her more and warm her up.  
  
"Take off and get to Kaeda's as fast as possible. I'll stay and tell the others. We should be there in a few days. If Kagome isn't awake by tomorrow then I'd start to worry." Inu Yasha stood up clutching the girl in his arms to his chest. He nodded quickly then took to the air. He traveled most of the day by air but when night fell he walked on the forest ground not sleeping but getting her to Kaeda's as fast as he could. He talked to her the entire time assuring her that she would be okay and apologizing for letting her get hurt, swearing that he would get whoever it was that did this to her. Her color came back slowly but as it did her hair started to get lighter as the time wore on. By the time he got her to Kaeda's her hair had a bluish tinge to it. Her skin was slightly flushed and she was sweating.  
  
"Kaeda." He called not caring that it was almost dawn and decent people were still asleep. He barged into the hut. "Kaeda get up we need you." He yelled at the poor old sleeping woman. Rain started to pour down outside. "Great." He muttered and nudged the woman with his foot.  
  
Kaeda grumbled at him and reluctantly sat up. "What is it that ye would rouse me in such a fashion Inu Yasha?" the lady miko grumbled. She got up and got a good look at Kagome. "What happened to her?" Kaeda asked, her one visible eye widening in worry.  
  
"That's what I came here to find out." He said exasperatedly.  
  
"I meant for ye to tell me how this was brought about." Kaeda stated as she examined the girl in his arms. Her eye squinted as she moved her face from side to side.  
  
"Well I went off last night to search for whoever it was that had attacked us while we were here before we left because I had a feeling they were near. Kagome obviously left while I was gone and the sneaky girl got by Miroku and Sango even though they were supposed to stand guard. I had refused earlier to tell her what the demon had threatened and I think she did this to get back at me. I came back this morning to hear them yelling for me. I ran inside the lodge but Kagome was already gone. I went off to find her and I smelled her fear on the air just before I found her. There was blood everywhere Kaeda.. so much of her blood." He paused for a second getting his breath back, then continued on. "A fang was buried in her back and I thought she was dead. Her heartbeat was faint but it was there. Myouga came and told me he couldn't take the poison out of her body that it had already traveled too far in her blood stream." At that he glanced worriedly at the girl. "He said to come to you as fast as possible but after a while her heartbeat just got stronger and stronger. But Myouga acted like it was such an awful thing."  
  
Kaeda kept a calm mask on her face although beneath the mask she was worried for the young miko before her. 'What could this mean?' she thought "Inu Yasha I will do the best I can but I warn you I have never heard of this before and I think all that I can do is make sure that the poison doesn't kill her."  
  
"It won't kill her if she's been able to survive this long." He laid her on a mat and lay down beside her. 'You will get better Kagome I know it.' He thought before he drifted off his arms around her.  
  
'Inu Yasha must be really worried about her if he's willing to act like that especially in front of other people.' Kaeda thought as she turned Kagome onto her stomach. She looked for a wound but found none. "Um Inu Yasha?" she shook him awake.  
  
"What Kaeda-baba? Is she alright?" he sat up worriedly.  
  
"Yes she's alright Inu Yasha but where was she hit with the fang?" Inu Yasha looked at her back. His jaw dropped. "Where'd it go?" he said stupidly. He pulled her shirt off. "It was just right there." He pointed to her left shoulder. Kaeda actually let her worry show but instantly masked it when she saw Inu Yasha notice it. "Kaeda what's wrong with Kagome?" he pulled the girl onto his lap as she made noises of finally coming around.  
  
Kagome's head pounded. Her eyes opened and blinked trying to focus in on who was there. "Inu Yasha?" her voice sounded rusty and slurred to her own ears.  
  
"Kagome! Your eyes!" Inu Yasha shouted. He looked into her eyes. "They're green." He said quietly looking at their freakishly bright shade.  
  
"What? Inu Yasha could you please lower your voice you're being really loud." Kaeda looked even more worried. The old miko leaned in to peer at her now that she was awake.  
  
"Kagome... do you feel different?" She said as quietly as possible.  
  
"Yes. my head's really fuzzy and I can't see straight just yet... Everything seems loud." she winced as Kaeda got up. "Kaeda could you try to get up a little quieter next time? I could hear the wood groan for some reason."  
  
Kaeda shot her a glare, "I am not that heavy Kagome."  
  
Inu Yasha looked surprised, "Kaeda what's wrong with Kagome?" He gave the said girl really worried glances. Kagome's nose wrinkled at the smell that greeted her nose.  
  
Pausing for a second, "Kagome what's going on outside?" Kaeda asked quietly.  
  
"Some men are walking towards the forest I think. They're carrying sawdust in buckets. Pine wood I think. The woman next door has a crying baby and is trying to get it to calm down. Why?" she paused inhaling deeply. "What is that smell?"  
  
"What smell Kagome?" Inu Yasha asked quite bewildered by everything to even formulate intelligent thought.  
  
"I don't know it." her nose wrinkled again. "It's making me feel all nervous and jittery." She sat up and groaned falling back into Inu Yasha's arms. She ran a hand over her face. "Can you tell me what happened Inu Yasha?"  
  
"You left like an idiot and got hit with those fangs I was trying to keep you away from." The words from the demon came back to him. "Kaeda could you go outside for a second?" He asked. The old miko nodded and stepped out.  
  
Kagome grimaced as she heard the pounding steps as she left. "Kagome? I think I. know what happened."  
  
"What Inu Yasha?" she said quietly.  
  
"That-that demon that we fought.. you know?" she nodded. "Well it um... It told me and Shippo that it would turn you into our worst nightmare and your greatest dream if it got half a chance and I think it did."  
  
A frown over came her features. "My dream?"  
  
"Kaeda you can come back in now." He bellowed. Kagome covered he sensitive ears. He was instantly contrite. "I'm sorry Kagome I didn't mean to yell so loud." He removed her hands from her ears and his worst fear was confirmed. Her ears were slightly pointed and her hair had gotten even lighter while they were talking. It was now a medium blue.  
  
Kaeda came in and looked shocked at Kagome's ears. "By all the heavens." she gasped clutching her chest. Kagome laughed at the sight but groaned again as the sound met her ears. 'It is so rare that Kaeda acts like anything shocks her if it ever does.' Kagome thought. "What's wrong Kaeda?" Kagome asked as she looked at the old woman. Kaeda shook her head and came over to them.  
  
"When are the others going to get here?" Kaeda asked staring at Kagome. Kagome looked at the woman in front of her. The black patch that covered one of Kaeda's eyes interested her for a moment. The old lady's good eye however was gray and blurry with age. The wrinkles around her face reminded her of a grandmother figure. 'Time sure doesn't treat people well in this era.' She thought of how her grandfather looked and he had to be twenty years older than Kaeda yet he didn't have half so many wrinkles from age. Sure his hair was just as gray with age and his body sagged as much as hers but it went so much faster here than in the future.  
  
"Maybe tonight... tomorrow afternoon, at the speed they would have to travel." Inu Yasha said absently. "Myouga said he was going to tell them and bring them here." Inu Yasha looked at her. "Why?"  
  
"You're going to have to find the best way to break this to them." Kaeda left the hut again to digest the new information. Kagome had certainly undergone a lot of changes in less than a day or two.  
  
"Kagome why did you have to want to be this?" He rested his forehead on her back sighing heavily. "If you had only wanted anything else."  
  
"I have no clue what you're talking about Inu Yasha but why are you...um.. resting on me?" She turned to face him and ran her hands lightly over his face. "Are you okay? You don't regularly do stuff like that?" she stood up getting out of his embrace. "Can we go somewhere or do something. I really want to figure out what happened. And I want to do that away from here. Just in case anyone else went through these changes that I did."  
  
Although, she pretty much figured no one else had. She stood at the doorframe leaning against it. "I feel so strange Inu Yasha... I have never felt this way before. It's like I've been given a gigantic magnifying glass on all my senses." He stood up and picked her up from behind.  
  
"Sure we can go somewhere." He leapt into the air and took her to the top of the biggest tree he could find. She smiled at him when they were down and revealed her fangs. "Listen Kagome?"  
  
"Yeah?" her smile faded. Her new green eyes seemed to be able to look into his soul, making him feel guilty for not telling her earlier and not expecting her to do as she had.  
  
"Um you're body went under some really... extraordinary changes.. And I want you to know, I will do everything I can to get you back to the way you were... but um.. Kagome? Do you have a mirror on hand?" he scratched his head not knowing precisely how to show her what she looked like.  
  
"No, I don't think so. What do you mean extraordinary changes?" She eyed him warily not noticing the effect she was having on him.  
  
He shuffled around on the branch. "Um Kagome. Have you even noticed how far up we are or the fact that you're um balancing on a really thin branch?" She looked down and her face paled visibly. Her body started to wobble and he regretted telling her. He reached out a steadying hand. "You're eyes are green now... and your hair is turning blue." He paused "Your ears are pointed and I'm not too sure if you're a hanyou or a full demon because you're still changing."  
  
"I'm WHAT?!?!" She screeched and flinched at her own voice. Her fingers moved up to touch her ears. She jerked her hands away as if they had been burned. 'Those pointy things on the side of my head are NOT my ears!' her mind screamed at her. Her eyes blinked a few times. "Wh-... what happened to me?" she gasped. She launched herself into his chest wanting to be protected like he had promised. His arms wrapped around her even as he tried to regain his balance. He failed and they started to fall. Kagome's instincts took over and she wrapped her arms tightly around him and found her center of gravity. She landed on the balls of her feet. "Are you okay?" she asked quietly when they were safely on the ground.  
  
"Kagome? How did you do that? That was amazing!" He hugged her laughing. She looked bewildered. He just laughed harder. "You just saved us both a very hard landing."  
  
She smiled slowly. "I don't know how I did it. It just um happened." He set her down and smiled into her face.  
  
"And I thought this was going to be a nightmare." He commented lightly.  
  
"Why would you think this would be a nightmare?" she swallowed. "I am so tired I-I just don't know how to accept all this right now Inu Yasha. D- do I look... bad to you?" She frowned.  
  
"I thought that you'd have no instincts and I need to find a way to fix this. " He decided to ignore the last question not too sure on how he should answer. Her face seemed to be a little leaner and her ears were odd to put it nicely. He liked the change in hair color. She didn't look so much like Kikyou anymore and that should make her feel better as she didn't want him to think of her like a reincarnation. The fangs were a nice addition but he couldn't really find anything that made her look bad. And if he could tell anything about the changes that had happened under her clothes she had become a bit more muscular than before.  
  
She looked away from him. 'Of course he doesn't like you stupid. You must look positively hideous for him to want to change you back so quickly. Why would you even want to ask a question you knew the answer to?' He grabbed her arm. "Are you okay Kagome?"  
  
"I want to go back Inu Yasha. I just want to go back but I don't want to be around anyone just as of yet." She looked up the tree. The idea of leaving appealed to her greatly. She glanced at him. "Do you think that whatever it was that attacked me earlier will come back?"  
  
"No, I think this is all it wanted to do. Or at least that's what I'm hoping but... yeah I'm pretty sure that's all it wanted." He thought of all the things he could do with her now that she was a demon also. He grinned. "Thanks."  
  
She leapt up into the tree they had fallen out of and looked around. "No wonder you love being up here so much." She gazed at the tops of the trees spanned out around her seemingly to go on forever. She felt the branch move as he landed beside her. "Its so beautiful" she sighed. He looked around himself trying to imagine it the way she must be seeing it. Being that it was the first time she had ever seen such a view.  
  
"Its better at night." he said absently. She looked around her and suddenly took off through the trees testing how fast she could go. He followed closely, wanting to know if she was faster than he was. Suddenly she stopped and he slammed into her back. She caught him by the wrist, as he was about to fall. He looked up at her seeing something poking from beneath her skirt.  
  
"Kagome? You have something furry under your skirt." She pulled him up to the branch she was standing on. She reached under her skirt. He heard her underwear rip as a big furry tail came into view. He gawked. "I have a tail?" She said shocked. He reached out and touched it. The fur was silky smooth under his fingers. She experimentally flicked it and watched the colors sparkle in the sunlight. "Wow. Never thought I'd have one of these." She said dryly. He stepped up closer and examined it. "Would you stop pulling on it like that? I can feel everything you're doing to it."  
  
He apologized and ran his claws through the silky mass. "Its not like you've never seen one before. Sesshomaru has one too."  
  
He let it go. She swished it around again for fun. He bit his lip trying to resist the powerful temptation to touch it just one more time. "Kagome with a tail like that and your ears being the way they are I think you may be a full demon." She flicked his hand with her tail. "Do you care?" She just shook her head. "You don't care?" Again she shook her head. Looking up into the morning sky and sighed.  
  
"There's nothing I can do about it right now so why worry about it? I can always figure it out later." She brought her tail in front of her and played with it, experimenting with what felt good and what didn't. "No wonder Buyo gets mad at Souta when he rubs his tail wrong. It hurts." She smiled. "I guess I won't be going home for a while." She commented lightly.  
  
"No, I guess not." He agreed and regretted it when she burst into tears and sat down on the branch. He stared at her at a loss for what to say. "You can stay here with me, Kagome. I can teach you lots of things. Like how to jump really high like me." He knew it had sounded stupid but he HATED hearing and/or being around when she was in tears. Her shoulders shook as she tried to contain her sobs.  
  
He patted her back awkwardly. "Come on you know I don't like to see you cry." She sniffled and buried her face in her new tail. The light blue fur of her tail stood out beside her face. He rubbed her back getting her to calm down.  
  
"Sorry Inu Yasha I just- I don't know, I just felt so sad and I guess it just came out like that." She relaxed under his hand. He looked at the shreds of her shirt. He took one of his claws and hooked it in the hole over her shoulder. She turned and faced him. "How bad was I?"  
  
He paused remembering the horrific mess she had been. "I thought you were dead when I saw you." He scooted closer and tried to close the hole in her shirt but ended up ripping it more instead. "Your heart wasn't beating very hard. And you were lying in your own blood. Then all of a sudden your heart just started to beat harder and harder. I thought it was a miracle. Myouga told me to bring you here because he thought something was wrong with you. I think it was the poison that was in the fang that made you like this." He gestured to her body. "I went all that day and all last night bringing you here so that you could get better. Myouga stayed behind to tell the others. They should be here by nightfall or tomorrow afternoon as I said earlier. I don't expect them to take too long but I know Myouga will want them to sleep so that I can have more time to adjust you to your change. But they will still exhaust themselves in trying to get to you. I bet that little flea knew what was going on." He mused aloud.  
  
"What is it that you need to teach me?" she asked quietly. She stroked his ears and he turned into her attention before he realized what he was doing. Once his brain caught up with his body he moved away. "Sorry but I imagined that you must be tired from carrying my dead weight around for a whole day." She smiled at him. He frowned at her. "I didn't say you were weak I just figured that any normal person would've been tired after only an hour and you did twenty-four." She stated not wanting to injure his pride. He nodded.  
  
"Go to sleep and we'll talk some more when you wake up." She leapt down to the ground. Getting a soft spot on the dewy ground, she laid down and tried to sleep. Inu Yasha lowered himself to a branch just above her head and relaxed getting ready to fall asleep. Her tail curled around her head pillowing it from the ground.  
  
He closed his eyes and began to doze when he heard a rustle of movement. His eyes opened and Kagome was facing him her eyes still closed. He sighed and settled back down. He heard the noise again and opened his eyes. She seemed to be closer. He shook his head and went directly to sleep. 'Don't worry about it. She's just trying to get comfortable in her new state', was his last coherent thought before he passed out from exhaustion.  
  
Kagome looked at Inu Yasha, her stomach clenching for some reason. She sniffed him lightly imprinting his scent in her brain. She got closer and nosed lightly in his hair. He started to show signs of waking up so she lay down again. His eyes didn't open but he was almost awake. She could tell by the beating of his heart. It wasn't as relaxed as it was if he had been asleep and when she had sniffed him it had skipped a beat. Once it settled down again and his breathing was even she got up and moved to his side again. She brushed the hair out of his eyes and looked at his sleeping face.  
  
"Today you were so nice. It seemed like ever since we killed that demon a while ago you haven't yelled at me as much." She whispered to his silky ears. On impulse she touched the rim with the claw on her first finger. She ran it all the way around the rim switching between her claw and her pad of her finger. The soft fur felt different under her finger. 'Must be the changes my body went through. Now I guess I can feel things ten times as much as I used to.' He sighed and began to wake up again. This time she moved behind him and stood extremely still wondering if he'd notice. His nose wiggled, as he smelled Kagome. She had moved but she was still close.  
  
He relaxed "Kagome, can't you keep still?" he asked sleepily. "I don't feel like having to get up just as of yet. I've not even had five minutes rest." She sighed guiltily and lay down underneath him, wrapping her tail under her head to rest on. Sleep came quickly and her dreams were very different from what she was used to.  
  
Colors swirled around her head and she laughed at their brilliance and vividness. She let herself fall backwards into the cloud colors. Strong arms bore her up. She smiled at the sensations it had made skim down her back. "Inu Yasha is that you?" She was greeted by silence. She smiled some more. The colors turned green, her favorite color. The shades swirled as if blown by a wind. She giggled and twirled dancing to her hearts content. She saw the world take form beneath her feet. Leaves carpeting the ground as the trees grew and children played together, youkai and human alike.  
  
She smiled as she saw them grow up together. After a few years, full- grown youkai attacked the happy scene. She tried to save the children she had seen but many were slaughtered. Afterwards the humans shunned the youkai believing it was their entire fault that this had happened. Kagome cried for the loss as none of the children had.  
  
She watched as they grew to hate each other even more, until she saw Inu Yasha playing by himself in a courtyard. His little ball bounced around as he tried to catch it. His mother watched from a little swing not too far away. Kagome grinned as he ran to his mother laughing merrily and gripping her legs as she sat. She watched as they bathed together that afternoon and as his mom brushed his hair that evening.  
  
She heard the cries of the people as the village caught on fire from mysterious attackers suddenly assailing the village. She watched as Inu Yasha's mother threw him out the window of the burning castle to save him, telling him to run that she would be with him soon. She tried to follow as Inu Yasha ran and climbed into a giant redwood tree to hide from the guards following him. But Kagome watched horrified as demons from another tribe saw her and decapitated her as she struggled to get out of the window and to her son.  
  
As he lay there for days without his mother coming for him, she felt compelled to help him. After all he didn't know what had happened and if he did, she was certain he would've died from grief. She looked around and found a rabbit. She quickly killed it and brought it over to the sleeping boy. For some reason, he could see what she had left but not her. She sighed as the boy actually ate.  
  
Kagome's eyes opened to Inu Yasha standing above her. "Are your dreams always like that?" She asked before she could think. She looked at the grown boy in front of her and felt overwhelming sense of grief. He frowned at her. "What?" She just stood up shaking out her tail. "We need to get you some other clothes." He commented lightly. The sun had already set and it was almost completely dark out. If she had been normal she wouldn't have been able to see as it was she could see almost perfectly although everything was slightly dim. He had to use his will power not to stare at her tail as it waved behind her.  
  
"You said the view was better at night." She said quickly before she leapt up into the highest branches of the trees. A faint purple light emanated from where the sun had set, illuminating the tops of the trees in an almost mystical glow. She sighed, "You were right. It is better at night."  
  
"Lets go. I've got to start teaching you something." She sighed again as she got back to the ground. "I see I don't have to teach you how to get up and down properly. But would you like to be able to fly through the air?" She nodded.  
  
He showed her how to hold her body to get ready to leap into the air to get the maximum use of her muscles. She giggled, she felt like such an idiot with her butt sticking out like it was. Her tail only added to her discomfort by getting trapped between her butt and the fabric of her skirt.  
  
She got out of the position. "Do you mind if I fix a problem that's starting to bother me?"  
  
"No, but do it quickly because I want to get this over with." His jaw dropped as she tore off her skirt leaving her in her bright red underwear.  
  
"My tail was cramped." She explained and got back into the ready position. "Are you going to teach me or not?" she fumed when he was still staring. 'Its not like he's never seen girls' underwear before.' He shook his head to clear it and got back to teaching her.  
  
Once she had made two or three successful jumps he warned her that she might need to learn how to carry a passenger. "You did alright but you and I are going to have to work on your landings if we are going to let you haul other people around. You, Shippo and I might be able to take the slightly rough landings but Sango and Miroku won't be able to. They are just as weak as you used to be."  
  
"Oh really? I can be a pony express like you?" she joked. He glowered at her.  
  
"That's not funny." He stuck his nose in the air. "I don't have to haul you around like a common pack mule-" He started in on a tirade but she cut him off.  
  
"Not anymore from the looks of it huh?" She smiled at him. He just gave her a look out of the corner of his eye. "Oh come on I didn't mean to sound so awful to you. How about we go back to Kaeda's and I fix us some hot chocolate?" She punched his shoulder lightly.  
  
"Whatever." He used her terms back on her. "You might want to cover your legs some though. You might give some geezer a heart attack. I know Miroku would have one." He grinned thinking of the lecherous monk.  
  
She frowned, "He paws me now and he'll regret it." She smiled again. "I must be a lot stronger than I was. Hey, Inu Yasha, why not teach me how to fight for a bit?"  
  
He frowned at her. "I'm already busy teaching y-" her hand smacking him into a tree cut him off. "WHY YOU LITTLE-" He leapt at her and she dodged laughing. She ran off into the trees, with him hot on her tail so to speak. Cutting around behind him, she jumped onto his back sending him into the dirt. She flipped off his back and let him knock her to the ground. She rolled out from under him and jumped up quickly sweeping her foot out and catching him behind the knee bringing him to the ground. She laughed again and he took the opportunity to leap on top of her rolling around until he had her pinned.  
  
They panted for a while, laughing between gasps of air. Then she kicked him off of her having him land on his back above her head. He grunted as he hit the ground. She leapt to her feet. "You'll pay for that." He told her just before he leapt to his feet. She just grinned at him. He lunged at her and pinned her to the ground again. She laughed and rolled over under him. Her tail wrapped around his neck and her back pressed to his stomach. She laughed again as she pulled herself up to her feet. Her tail stayed around his neck until he pulled it off gently so as not to hurt her.  
  
He calmed himself down. 'You were only playing she didn't mean to take that position.' She looked off to where she smelled cooking meat. "MMM that smells so good-" Her nose wiggled as she smelled the air. "I think they're cooking meat."  
  
He nodded and sat down again. "Do you want to go to Kaeda's or do you want me to teach you how to hunt?" She looked back at him and sat in front of him. She decided to lie down, so she stretched and laid out on her back her tail flicking slowly. "It's not that hard of a question." He watched her tail flick back and forth tempted to grab it.  
  
"I know I just wanted to stretch for a bit. That was fun you know?" She glanced at him. "Can we play like that more often?" he quickly looked away from her tail. She looked back up to the star filled sky. The big dipper over head she counted over three stars to the right from the tip of the handle. "That's my star." She said pointing.  
  
"What?" he looked up. "I suppose we could play like that more often. You would be able to learn how to fight better and sooner." He commented. He gave in to temptation and took her tail in his hands and dragged his claws through the fur. She smiled at the good feeling it created.  
  
She looked at him, her green eyes glowed in the darkness as did his. "Teach me how to catch a fish." She sat up her tail catching leaves in its fur. She quickly shook them out and got ready to go.  
  
"Don't you want these?" he said dangling her skirt off his finger. He smirked at her but she just tossed them into the bushes. He looked at where they fell. "Aren't you worried about someone seeing you?"  
  
"Inu Yasha with how I look now I'm certain they won't notice a little thing like indecency." She shot him a glance over her shoulder. 'Really when how people react to regular demons just what will they think when they realize its "Lady Kagome" and she's a common demon?' she smirked at her thoughts. 'A demon guarding the sacred Shikon no Tama.'  
  
'With how you look now its amazing I'm not the one you're worried about. PERVERT' his mind screamed at him. 'And I thought she wasn't wearing much when she had on that skirt.' He told his mind to shut up so he wouldn't have a constant blush on his face. He let her lead him to the nearest river. "I'm amazed that you found it. Figured that with how hard you try to remember you were human you wouldn't use your ears to hear it." He said as he waded a bit into the stream. "This takes a lot of patience and I suggest that you let me catch dinner first, then after we eat I'll let you try okay?"  
  
"Okay." She watched silently as his arm shot through the water and threw a fish upon the bank. The muscles in his arm bunched before he caught another one. She watched as four more followed the first one. Once they were all up there he moved out of the water. His pant legs were soaked from him forgetting to roll them up. "Now for you to learn how to use your claws."  
  
She grimaced as she imagined what she would have to do. He took up a fish and gashed its belly, quickly gutting it. "Now you try." She picked up a fish and it squirmed in her hand. The scales felt nasty to her and all she wanted was to put it down and let him do it all. She slowly put her claws on its belly and pushed downward. Her claws sank into its flesh. Blood seeped around her claws and made her feel dirty and gross. It wiggled around more, disgusting her so she quickly snapped its head to make it stop moving around in her palm and grossing her out.  
  
He watched her amused. She grimaced as she quickly tore it open and turned it over hoping the guts would just fall out. Inu Yasha came near her and sliced the organs at the top and at the bottom for her and waited. She looked sickly at the remains as they finally came completely out, but cut out the little black seam following its spine. Then she severed off its head and put it in the water to clean off. "Good job now try another." She glowered at him.  
  
He tossed her another fish and she went about the task quickly this time although she slammed the fish against a rock to keep from having to break its neck with her hands not liking doing it from the first time. She sliced the belly quicker this time and cut the guts like Inu Yasha had done then pulled them out quickly. She cut out the black seam again and sliced off its head setting it with the other fish. The smell was starting to get to her so she covered her nose and instantly regretted it. Her hands were covered in fish guts and blood, she immediately dashed a little upstream and washed them off then ducked her head in the water. She could hear Inu Yasha squealing with laughter where she had left him.  
  
"Glad you're so happy about it. Now you can do the rest by yourself." She leapt up into the tree above him watching him as he still snickered every once in a while. "That was not funny Inu Yasha if I can help it I will NEVER be doing that again." She heard him burst into another fit of laughter. She glared at his shoulders as they shook from the force of his laughter.  
  
"I can't believe you. You can't even gut a fish. And, by the way, it was your idea." He laughed some more. "Doesn't even like to gut a fish. Goodness Kagome, you are going to be about the oddest demon someone could ever come across." He remarked laughing even harder trying to imagine what Sesshomaru would say if he heard of a demon not liking to kill things.  
  
"I just did gut a fish stupid and I don't want to ever again." She shuddered. "Those stupid things just feel so gross, even though they taste good cooked."  
  
"Well then go start a fire and you can cook them, as I'm doing the dirty work." He snickered some more recalling her look of utter distaste as it squirmed in her hands. She had looked horrified when it still moved after she had slit its stomach... or more like sloppily punctured it.  
  
She leapt down on his head giving him a big face full of the dead bloody fish. "There how do YOU like it?" She flounced off gathering up wood for the fire. As she came back, some of his hair was matted around his face from him having to take a quick wash in the water. She laughed at him. "Did you find your little face dive enjoyable?" she smirked. He caught her by her shoulder and leg intending to throw her into the water. She caught a hold of his arm just before he let go and brought him into the water with her.  
  
She laughed again at his face while he sputtered and spit out water. "Ha that's what you get for trying a trick like that on me." She grinned. He ducked her head under water. She tried to struggle up but he kept her down. She looked at his body under water. She gripped his shirt and tore it free of his pants making him gasp as the cold water rushed underneath to get to his skin.  
  
He let go of her almost instantly. "Want to try that again?" she challenged after she had gotten a good breath of air. He glared at her. She met it with laughter. "Cant take a little dunk Inu Yasha?" She paused. "Do you want to eat or don't you?" she said not wanting a repeat of the past five minutes.  
  
He climbed out of the small pool and she followed. He shook his body trying to dispel the water in his hair and clothes but to no avail. "You stupid wench now I have to take off my clothes to dry." He absolutely loathed the idea of undressing in front of her. 'What in the world would she say if she saw you naked?' he thought to himself. 'Probably what everyone else had when they had seen him bathing while he was a pup.'  
  
"Well you're not the only one." She pulled her shirt over her head and draped it over a nearby branch. "Well?" she asked when he didn't make a move to take off his. "Do I have to do it for you?"  
  
He blushed slightly at the thought then quickly discarded his clothes except for his breeches. She grinned as she wrapped her tail around herself covering her vital areas. He grumbled about her being so lucky as to be able to cover herself. They lit the wood with the lighter that, amazingly, still worked after their little dunk in the water.  
  
"What were you doing with a lighter in your tie?" he asked as he munched on the cooked fish. She had to hide her look of disgust when she heard the bones crunch in his teeth as he didn't think to close his mouth while eating.  
  
"I bring it along everywhere. There's no telling when I might need something like that." She took a bite trying to avoid the bones. "If I only wouldn't have gutted these things I would be able to enjoy them a lot more." She grimaced as she remembered the blood and guts.  
  
"You need to get used to doing stuff like that more often." He commented between bites giving her a full view of how well he chewed his food.  
  
"Not if I can help it." she eyed the fish distastefully. "I will never volunteer for that again." She took another small bite. A funny feeling came over her body and she put the fish down not sure if she'd be able to eat.  
  
The sun came up and lighted on Kagome. He watched amazed as her hair turned completely black her eyes clouded over and turned back to their blue- gray color. Her ears shrank back to their normal shape and her tail shrank until it disappeared. He gawked at her rear as it was greatly exposed due to the gigantic hole where her tail had resided. Her claws shrank and disappeared.  
  
He rushed over to her as her body slumped forward and she hit the ground. "Kagome?! Are you okay?" He shook her form gently afraid for her. 'What is going on? She's human again.'  
  
She groaned. "Oh my god, my head hurts." Her eyes flitted open, "Inu Yasha what happened?"  
  
"It looks like you're back to normal." his face fell for an instant but lighted up again. "You can go back and visit your family now. Remember how you cried? You won't have to worry about that anymore." He smiled down at her.  
  
She put a hand to her stomach. "It wasn't a dream?" He shook his head. "No you really did run off into the forest without me and got yourself hurt in the process. If there's a next time I fully expect you to listen to me when I say don't leave okay?" he looked at her sternly. 'Great now you don't have to teach her anything. she won't have to stay with you.' his heart sank at that last idea although he tried to ignore the why.  
  
She smiled briefly at him. "Um do you want to get dressed?" He finally noticed her hand was on his bare chest and her about naked body was draped over his equally exposed thighs. He blushed and pushed her off his lap pulling on his still wet clothes.  
  
She moved over to her clothes and wrung them out. He watched as her shoulder blades moved as she wrung out her shirt. She pulled the cold material over her head causing goose bumps to run down her legs. He could still see through the back of the shirt and it was worse because of them having played around earlier. He sighed not wanting to look at her legs anymore than he had to so he stripped off his outer robe and handed it to her. "Cover up you might get sick. And I don't think you want Miroku to catch you in your panties he just may get ideas." 'That monk had better not lay a finger on Kagome or I'll tear him a new hole in the head.'  
  
They dumped the rest of the fish into the water and had her crawl onto his back. They leapt into the air. "Bet you're glad for the 'pony express' now aren't you?" he asked causing her to flush and nod dumbly. Her thighs tightened around his waist as he leapt from tree to tree. "I'd rather keep my hips if that's okay with you?" he said dryly.  
  
She blushed again and relaxed her grip. He landed in front of Kaeda's hut. The men around the village too used to his presence now, ignored him. Kaeda came out of her hut. Spotting Kagome she sighed and smiled. "Inu Yasha how did ye do it? I thought it would be permanent." She patted the hanyou on the back congratulating him.  
  
He grinned not correcting her assumptions. Kagome had other plans. "Wow Inu Yasha and here I thought it was the sun that did it seeing as how you were trying to adjust me to my new life." He glared at her over his shoulder.  
  
Kaeda sobered up instantly. He eyes showing shock for an instant before they went back to calmness. "You changed back with the rising sun?"  
  
"Yes Kaeda. I don't know how it happened but." She clambered off of Inu Yasha's back. "I'm back to normal. I guess. Would you happen to have any clothes I could borrow?"  
  
"What happened to your clothes Kagome?" Kaeda asked even as she went inside to gather the old miko garments Kikyou had worn over fifty years before. Digging them out she handed them to Kagome.  
  
Inu Yasha glared. "Why not just wear what I gave you? Is it not good enough?" 'I DON'T want her to wear those stupid robes. They bring back way too many memories that I just don't want to visit right now.'  
  
"Inu Yasha they're fine I just thought you might want them back." She handed the clothes to Kaeda noting his rather perplexed expression. "Thank you Kaeda but I won't need them."  
  
"Why don't you go to sleep while I wait on the others? After all you are a weak human again and you must be tired from all that exercise last night." He suggested. She shrugged and went inside not caring that he had called her weak. She looked around until Kaeda told her to go ahead and borrow her own matt to rest on. Kagome thanked her and laid down falling asleep almost instantly.  
  
"So what happened Inu Yasha?" Kaeda started out once she was outside again. The old miko sat on the steps next to him. Looking at him from the corner of her eye she felt there was something wrong with him but she knew he would not share it with her.  
  
"Nothing Important. I taught her how to jump like I do and to gut a fish." A small smile played on his lips as he remembered that little episode with the fish. He shrugged and sat outside the door. "Why don't you go take care of the sick like you usually do? I'm sure someone's dying to see you right now." He crossed his arms willing her to go away. He wanted to think and she wasn't helping matters. Kaeda took the hint and left. 'You are acting very strangely Inu Yasha. Pray tell what could the reason be?'  
  
Miroku, Sango, Myouga, and Shippo were all cramped on Kirara's back rushing to get to Kaeda's as fast as they could. What little hints Myouga had told them had not eased their fears only compounded them.  
  
Once the village came into view Kirara used a burst of speed and dropped into the village quickly retransforming into her tiny kitten form. Sango quickly ran to Inu Yasha. "Where is she? Is she okay?" Her face portraying the stress she was feeling.  
  
"She's okay and she's in the hut resting up. You can go in if you like." Inu Yasha thumbed over his shoulder. Sango immediately darted through, seeing her friend pale on the mattress on the floor but otherwise okay. She pulled the younger girl up into a crushing hug. "I thought you would've died on us by the way Myouga was talking." Her voice shook as she was trying to control her emotions.  
  
Kagome laughed slightly at her friend's near hysterics. "I'm okay, really Sango. As usual Inu Yasha saved me and now I'm okay." She patted her friends back. Shippo launched himself at her not holding back anything. He bawled outright. "I thought you had died!" He cried.  
  
"Well as you see Shippo I am alright now and you can thank Inu Yasha later if you like. I'm sure he'd love to hear that." She grinned at him. He sniffled and hugged her.  
  
Miroku stayed outside with Inu Yasha. "How bad was she?" he asked leaning against the hut jingling his staff. Miroku sighed in relief that the hanyou had been able to save Kagome. 'You really should realize by now that he will never let anything bad happen to Lady Kagome.' He thought to himself.  
  
Inu Yasha shrugged. "She's okay now." His eyes trailed to the door behind him as he heard Shippo's little outburst. He rolled his eyes at the baby kitsune's antics.  
  
Miroku chuckled, "Of course you would play it down like that Inu Yasha but really how bad was she? How did you heal her so quickly? Miroku spoke as if she were on her death bed."  
  
"The way Myouga talked, I thought she was going to die in my arms before I got her here to get fixed up. But once we got here her body had undergone some changes. And she had healed on her own. All day yesterday Kagome was a real demon."  
  
"That's not very nice to say Inu Yasha after all she was just hurt." Miroku frowned slightly at him. "And Kagome does have her less than perfect moments but a demon honestly. But how did she heal on her own? Myouga said she had a gaping hole in her back and he could see the broken ribs and everything through it."  
  
"No you don't get it. Kagome was a full demon with a tail, claws, light hair, and everything. Which also means that she could heal just as a regular demon." No sooner had Inu Yasha spit this out, Miroku was running inside to see if Inu Yasha was telling the truth.  
  
Inu Yasha waited for Miroku to burst back out. "Inu Yasha!" he yelled. 'Bingo' Inu Yasha thought. "Kagome isn't a demon." He heard a resounding smack. "And she doesn't have a tail either." He stepped out swaying slightly under the force of the smack. "How did you get to know if she had a tail anyway? I didn't feel one." Inu Yasha eyed the glowing red print on the monk's cheek.  
  
Inu Yasha smirked. "I would swear that you would learn one day not to grope Kagome. It was poking out from under her skirt, which by the way is still in the woods as the material cramped her tail. So-" He gestured to his white under shirt. "I had to give her something to wear instead of going around in that bra thing or just her underwear."  
  
Miroku's jaw dropped. "You saw her in her under garments? What did they look like?" Inu Yasha just nodded expecting something along those lines.  
  
Kagome ran outside. "Inu Yasha don't you tell him that!" her face a bright red. "Its not my fault you made me take a dunk in the river. Which, by the way, is the reason I had to go around in less than usual. Or that you made me gut fish which made my clothes stink so bad." She shuddered then fixed him with a glare.  
  
"Yep and its not my fault either that you decided to remove your skirt because it was cramping your tail and then throw it out into the bushes to be lost for quite a while." He smirked while the rest of the group gawked at a now furious Kagome.  
  
"And what about you? You didn't have a tail to cover yourself. You may as well have been wearing a g-string for all the coverage YOU had." Kagome smirked thinking she had gotten him.  
  
"What's a g-string?" Miroku and Inu Yasha asked at the same time. Kagome almost 'sat' him. Sango chimed in. "Is that something from your time Kagome?"  
  
Kagome flushed. 'I do not want to tell them what a g-string is!' She sighed knowing she would have to now that she had brought it up. "A g- string is a little strip of fabric that wraps around your waist then another even tinier string goes between your legs covering virtually nothing and its really. It's supposed to be underwear." she was at a loss of what to say. Everyone was staring at her.  
  
Miroku was the first to recover. "Do girls from your time wear those?" he grinned.  
  
"Its not like you'd see them unless you went to a hooker or something like that. But normal girls, if they wear them they are hidden so that other people don't see them. Or if they like you enough, there are some girls who'll do about anything." she mused aloud missing the starry eyed look from Miroku.  
  
"There are girls in your time who would just sleep with a man because they will do anything?" Miroku asked quite pleasantly. Sango shot him a murderous glance. 'One more word buddy just one more word.' Her eye ticked.  
  
"Yes but I wouldn't sleep with them if I were a guy because in my time we have nasty little diseases that can be spread by sleeping around with people. But if you don't sleep around you have nothing to worry about."  
  
"Did you sleep around Kagome? Is that how you know about those diseases?" Miroku picked himself up off the floor from where Sango had just knocked him with all the force she had in her arms. "Hey what was that for?"  
  
"Does Kagome look like she's slept around Miroku?" Sango sighed. 'Men they are so dense.'  
  
"No Kagome doesn't sleep around because if she had a disease it would stand out and if she had already slept with someone his scent would be on her, ne?" Inu Yasha reasoned. Kagome blinked at him. "Yes I can tell stuff like that by just sniffing you." he sighed.  
  
"Oh okay." She nodded. They spent the rest of the afternoon talking of what had happened while Kagome was a demon. Kagome kept her little sniffing experiment to herself. Even though she was human now she could still remember Inu Yasha's particular smell. Inu Yasha kept quiet except to point out little things that she had done that he knew would embarrass her. They mainly consisted of the fish incident and when she ripped off her skirt.  
  
They moved inside when the air took a slight chill. After having lunch they continued on with all the things that they could have done if Kagome were still a demon. Needless to say Inu Yasha decided to skip out on that conversation too. Later that evening Kagome sighed looking outside. Sango, Miroku, and Inu Yasha were talking about the fact that no Shikon rumors had been flying around as of late.  
  
"Its almost dark." She commented lightly looking out the door of Kaeda's hut. She looked at the pretty reds and oranges that lit up the sky as the sun sank lower and lower on the horizon. She stepped out on impulse and watched until she felt a shivering inside her body. The shivering traveled through her limbs making her feel stretched but strong. Warmth spread through her like a fire everywhere the shivers passed.  
  
Inu Yasha smelled Kagome's scent get stronger and alter slightly. He stepped outside. She was on her tiptoes, her skin glowing faintly from the inside out. He watched as claws made themselves known and her tail came back full force. Her right eye stayed the blue shade but her left was that eerie green. Her hair went powdery blue with black tips. Little ears made themselves known on top of her head. She turned to face him. "Inu Yasha what's wrong?" His mouth worked but he couldn't find the words to tell her.  
  
Shippo launched himself outside. "Kagome!" he shrieked. "You're a hanyou like Inu Yasha!" Of course this outburst brought Sango and Miroku out from inside. Miroku gawked. "You DO have a tail." He grinned and ran over to it. His hands stroked the soft fur. Sango wasn't far behind. "Kagome how did this happen? We thought you were back to normal."  
  
"I thought I was too." She said quietly. Her tail flicked around gently and Shippo 'oohhed' and 'awed' it. "I never saw a dog hanyou with a demon tail Kagome." He commented.  
  
Sango remarked on it too. "Yeah its unusual especially as you seem to be a dog demon Kagome. If you had been a cat then it would've made more sense. I guess it's the way you had been transformed that brought this on."  
  
"I guess that just makes me special huh?" she said lightly tapping Shippo's nose gently. Once she got tired of feeling her tail being ruffled she pulled it out of their grasp. "I am on the other end of that thank you." She said coolly slightly aggravated. 'She never said that to me and I played with that almost twice as long as they did.' thought Inu Yasha. They apologized but stared at it almost like he had caught Kagome eyeing his ears a few times. 'Does she like petting my ears?' he shook his head free of the thought.  
  
Kagome looked off into the forest. "Do you want to go for a walk Shippo?" she pointedly left the rest of them out as they had all messed with her tail and she had a feeling Inu Yasha was just itching to run his fingers through it again. Shippo nodded and she set off at a slow pace twirling her tail around every so often. Shippo would laugh every time it tickled his nose and sneeze. So she did it on purpose a few times. He giggled and she let him sit at the base of her tail as she walked. He played with the end of it fluffing it out every so often. "Do you like my tail Shippo?"  
  
"Yes so does everyone else. I wasn't expecting Inu Yasha to stare like he did. It looked as if he wanted to shove everyone else off so he could play with it himself." Shippo grinned at the thought of the great hanyou wanting to play with a bit of fuzz. "Yeah that would be the day Inu Yasha playing with your tail." He laughed.  
  
"Hey it's happened." He laughed harder. "Yep he wanted to see how it felt to hold a tail. He ended up playing with it and the whole nine yards."  
  
Shippo continued on with his raucous laughter. "Do you know what he was doing Kagome?" She frowned and shook her head. "He was flirting with you!" He laughed like it was the greatest joke in the world.  
  
She frowned. "Well its not as if Inu Yasha has been around his kind enough to know what's acceptable and what's not."  
  
"But that's what's so funny Kagome! He didn't realize what he was doing so he was doing it unintentionally. Don't worry about the others in the group they're human and so it doesn't count."  
  
She frowned even more. "What do you mean it doesn't count?" He stayed smiling as he said, "Okay say you wanted to flirt with Inu Yasha. Because he doesn't have a tail you'd have to pet his ears or something like that. Mom and Dad used to play like that before I'd have to go outside to 'play' or something." He grinned. "He was flirting with you Kagome!"  
  
Kagome laughed thinking about it. 'So that first time you saw him you were flirting with him unintentionally.but because you were a human it didn't count.' "Hey Shippo? Why doesn't it count if you're a human?"  
  
Shippo looked at her from his perch on her tail. "I don't really remember right yet but maybe it'll come back to me." He scratched his head.  
  
"Its alright Shippo after all you did know more than I thought you might. I would've never thought you would know about the flirting habits of demons. How did you know anyway Shippo?"  
  
He huffed, "Kagome need I remind you that I am a demon? Besides Mom and Dad did make sure I knew what those moves were as I asked about them until they told me." She smiled and patted his head absently. He giggled and leapt off her tail and ran around her in circles. "You are a dog demon like Inu Yasha is. Aren't you special?" He laughed again.  
  
Kagome shook her head. "Shippo lets go back I'm kind of hungry." She picked up the little demon and leapt into the trees. 'Wow' Shippo mouthed unable to talk because of the speed at which they were moving. She landed in the village. Miroku and Sango flocked to her side again taking Shippo to interrogate him elsewhere.  
  
Inu Yasha walked over to Kagome. "Its too bad that you missed eating with us. We had fish and everything." He grinned at the face she made at him. Her ears swiveled around on her head startling her. She reached up with shaking fingers. Her hands were rewarded with silky smooth triangles on top of her head. She yelped when her claws scratched one. He shook his head at her and ruffled her hair. She glared at him. "I just pricked myself. It hurt." She rubbed the offended ear but was surprised when she didn't feel any pain. "It doesn't hurt." She remarked slightly awed.  
  
He laughed at her. "Of course not. Your body is just as special as mine is now. You can heal just as fast as I can but with time and a little wear and tear you might get just as good as I am." He grinned smugly. "With all the fights I've been in I heal faster than any other demon I've met."  
  
She smiled at him. "So you're saying you're going to let me get into a few fights?" she grinned. He gave her a wry glance. He took the tips of her hair in his fingers and looked at the ends. It was almost like they had been dipped in paint. It really stood out against the white quality of the rest of her hair.  
  
"Uh yeah." He said sarcastically. "Your hearing will get better than it is now and right now you're not really noticing anything because you're still thinking like a human." He pointed to where Sango and Miroku had left with Shippo. "Listen."  
  
She strained her ears and sure enough she could hear them. "So what did she say?" "I know they left some stuff out." "What did Kagome really do?" "Are she and Inu Yasha together?" "I couldn't get a really good look to see if he took her yet." Kagome choked on the last thing she caught.  
  
"You're trying too hard. You can hear without having to think about it. Remember the day at Kaeda's hut and she asked you what was going on outside and you answered without having to really think on it? I'll teach you more about your other senses later but for right now we'll work on your sense of hearing." He leaned over and felt her ears. He suddenly dropped his hand when she unconsciously leaned into the good feeling as he had done before.  
  
"Ha now who's acting like a dog Kagome?" She flushed all the way down to her toes. The tingling sensation of him rubbing her ears still stayed with her. She glared at him. "You did that on purpose." He laughed. "You did, didn't you?"  
  
He laughed some more then nodded. "For how many times you did that to me you deserved it." Her face grew serious as she thought of something.  
  
"Does it feel like that to you too?" His smile faltered. "W-what?" She stepped up to him. "Does it feel like that to you?" She reached out and brushed her fingers over is ears. He stepped back. 'What is she thinking? I'm awake now she can't just go and do that!' "Hey you played with my tail so I can play with your ears."  
  
"That was different. I had never played with a tail before and I know for certain you've played with MY ears before. Besides you have your own to mess with now." He glared. She laughed at him and walked by him into the hut.  
  
Before she went in she called casually. "Don't even tell me you didn't like it. It felt too good to me for you not too." She waltzed in and sat on the floor serving herself some soup to eat for dinner as no one was there with her.  
  
Shippo bounded over hiding behind Inu Yasha. "Get them to go away." He whispered. "They're asking me questions that I'd rather not think about for a few hundred years." Inu Yasha laughed.  
  
"I know Kagome was flirting with you Inu Yasha." The kitsune teased. "She was trying to play with your ears." He smirked because the hanyou couldn't see him from his perch on his back.  
  
"She doesn't know better. She only just changed this way." Inu Yasha was startled when Shippo laughed even harder at him. "What's so funny fox?"  
  
"I just explained that part while we were on our 'walk'" Shippo laughed harder falling off of Inu Yasha. Inu Yasha's face was almost comical. The shock/horror combo was priceless. Shippo satisfied with his work ran inside before Inu Yasha could get enough wits clobber him for telling her about some demon facts.  
  
"Hey Kagome. What are you doing in here? I thought Inu Yasha would want to each you something." Kagome was sitting down in front of Kaeda as the old woman had walked in during Shippo and Inu Yasha's little fit outside. She was also letting the old miko look at her ears, claws, fangs, etc. until the woman was satisfied. Shippo waited patiently until the old miko was done before he asked her to give him some soup. The old miko instantly obliged and gave him some of the vegetable stew she had made. He slurped it up and waited on Kagome to finish eating properly.  
  
Once she was done he dragged her outside. "Can we go play?" Kagome cocked her head at him. "What?"  
  
"Inu Yasha didn't play with you when you were a demon?" Kagome shook her head. "Not that I know of." Shippo ran off into the woods. Kagome followed him. He led her to the tree Inu Yasha was lounging on. "Oi, Inu Yasha come down here." He called up into the tree.  
  
Kagome shook her head and just leapt up into the branches. "Inu Yasha how do demons play together?" she asked confused. He glared down at where the kit had been but he had conveniently disappeared back to camp. "Inu Yasha?"  
  
He looked at her. "We played yesterday if you remember." She shook her head. "When you and I pretended to fight that was playing." She nodded understanding dawning in her eyes her mouth forming a little 'o'. "Why?" he asked cautiously. 'I can't wait until I have to teach her about other aspects of demons that she's not even aware of.' He didn't know it but his face looked like he had swallowed sour milk making Kagome a little nervous.  
  
"Shippo asked me if I wanted to play and I had no notion of what he was talking about." She sighed and laid back on the branch stretching out. Inu Yasha blushed as he caught a glimpse of her underwear again. Her legs rested along either side of the branch dangling. "You know I wish my body would make up its mind." She said absently scratching her stomach. "The other day I was full demon. Then I was human again. Now I'm a you." Her tail made itself known to him by sweeping across the branch in a lazy fashion.  
  
He smiled at her phrasing. "Is that so bad to be a 'me'?" She shook her head. He lashed out a foot and knocked her off the branch. She landed with a surprised thud on the ground. He heard her groan. He called down mockingly. "I thought you wanted to play Kagome."  
  
She growled. "I didn't say I wanted to play I asked what it was." She rolled over and looked up at him. She could feel rocks poking into her back from her seat on the ground. The leaves sticky and wet from the last rain clung to her body as she lay there.  
  
He smirked. "Hey well at least now you know. Don't let your guard down." He landed down beside her. She stayed on the ground. He hunched over near her.  
  
"Don't tell me you're ready to give up now?" he mocked. She swung her legs out wide catching him behind the knees making him go down. She laughed at him while he spit out dirt and leaves. He leapt onto her back and rolled her over tackling her and then he launched her away from him. She laughed as she landed with a loud thump onto the side of a tree. She ran at him and just as he was going to dodge her attack she predicted it and moved with him landing a blow to his stomach. "Oh look at how slow you are Inu Yasha." She taunted. He grunted and flew at her. She yelped as he pounced on her making her hit the dirt. 'I guess I know what its like to be sat' she thought belatedly as she spit out dirt. She swung her elbow back and almost caught him in the ribs. He gripped her arm and pinned it behind her back. She yelped and tried to throw him off. "That freaking hurts you know." She growled.  
  
He laughed at her. "You need to learn how to fight Kagome so try to find a way out." He grinned down at her back. She squirmed under him. He waited patiently and plucked leaves out of her messy hair. She got aggravated and rolled over popping her arm in the process but effectively surprising him with the strength she possessed. He bit his lip when her elbow accidentally caught his jaw.  
  
She saw the blood. "Oh Inu Yasha I'm sorry." He rolled his eyes and waited for it to disappear. "Oh I forgot that you heal like that..." she grinned. Then she cracked her knuckles imitating him causing her to laugh again. He frowned at her. "That is not funny Kagome." She just laughed harder. He crossed his arms on his chest and 'humphed'. Shippo watched from a safe perch where they could not see him and distracted as they were they would not smell him out. The situation was rather comical to him: Kagome laughing at Inu Yasha while he tried to appear frightening from his spot on the floor. Shippo stifled a giggle as he bounded off to the village for real this time.  
  
"Kagome would you get off of me?" he growled. Her face was flushed from the hysteria she had suffered from not a moment before. He eyes glowed under the curtain of her hair. The moon reflected off of her skin and teeth as she smiled at him. His breath stopped in his chest. Then she slid off of him and the moment was gone. He let out a pent up breath not realizing that he had stopped breathing a little while ago.  
  
Kagome flopped on her back. "So what is it you're going to teach me next?" She grinned at him looking across the expanse of dried dead leaves to him. His face was flushed also from their little exercise and his breathless condition. "I didn't know I could wind you so easy Inu Yasha." She continued to laugh gently not having the energy to give into all of the happiness bubbling under the surface.  
  
"Feh stupid you haven't 'winded' me. I'm just waiting for you to get up so that I can start in with some other things you should learn." She bit her lip and sat up. Stretching she rolled languidly to the balls of her feet. She smiled at him and waited.  
  
He rolled to his feet also and popped his shoulders. She waited patiently as he walked around for a bit. When she couldn't hold it in any longer she blurted. "Taking just a little while aren't we?"  
  
Inu Yasha smiled at her. "I thought you would just stand there forever just not saying anything." He moved over to her. "Alright there are bound to be some abilities that you got as a benefit for being hanyou. All hanyous have them. And as you have a tail I bet yours just might be a little bit more special. But I can teach you what all demons half or full can do."  
  
He gripped her right hand in his. "Do you use this hand more than the other?" she nodded. He tightened his grip then lifted her hand up in the air and made a downward swoop so fast it split the air apart and created little bursts of energy. "Wow." She said dumbfounded. He grinned at her and made the swoop again.  
  
"Okay you will be able to do this but I suggest you do it at slow speeds just as I showed you now so that you don't hurt yourself or me in the process." He grinned at her. "It really hurts when you catch your leg or some other body part in an attack like that no matter how slowly you go about it." She smiled. "Are you speaking from experience?" He didn't answer so she took his silence as agreement and tried out the move. She tried it at an even slower speed than he had shown her. She looked rather funny practicing as she was but she needed to learn. "Do I have the gist of it Inu Yasha?" He nodded. She tried it again faster this time and she heard the air move away from her hand but not separating the molecules like Inu Yasha had shown her.  
  
She tried it again as fast as he had shown her. She grinned when the same effect took place. He shook his head. 'You would think I had just shown her a miracle.' He sighed inside his head and watched her she got better at it. He laughed when she hit her leg like he had told her she would. He about died when she had started cursing. 'Obviously picked that up from you buddy.' He thought.  
  
She shot him a wry look over her shoulder. "That really hurt you know." He shrugged as if to say 'I told you so.' But she turned around and went at it again. Once she got fast enough to create bursts of energy with this attack he was going to have her try it out on a tree or something to see how powerful she was. He grinned when after a half hour of trying and she had finally made a small resemblance to what it was supposed to look like. She clapped her hands like it was something momentous. 'To her it probably is. After all she was only human not even two days ago.' He thought to himself. She laughed and did it again. He straightened off of the branch he had been leaning on. "Try it again but this time go as fast as you can and try to direct it at that tree." He pointed to the one behind him and moved to the side. She stepped up to it and looked at it.  
  
"Why?" she asked looking at him curiously. He rolled his eyes, "Because I asked you to okay?" She nodded and readied her arm. She brought it down with all her force and made the bark on the tree look like it had exploded. He grinned nodding for her to do it again. She smiled the repeated the action. The tree fell. She grinned at him. "Good enough?"  
  
Inu Yasha frowned and looked at the tree. The part that she had attacked was cut roughly. He'd have to teach her how to smooth it out but all in all she had done well. He placed his hand on the tree where it was bare. It was still slightly warm and hot to the touch. She bit her lip. "No good?"  
  
He looked at her, "You did fine but we're going to have to work on your smoothness just so that you may improve on some of the other things I will have to teach you."  
  
"Hey Inu Yasha?" She sat down on the tree she had felled. "Do you think I'll stay this way? I mean as a hanyou or do you think it would be like last time?"  
  
"How should I know?" he replied curtly. He had her practice on the tree until it was cut up into little pieces. He observed her work. "Well lets drag this back to the village I'm sure the villagers can use it with winter coming up and all." He commented.  
  
"So I was practicing so I could cut firewood?" She mock glared at him happy that she had actually learned something useful. He shrugged and started to pick up pieces and stack them. She grabbed up armfuls and made the trek to Kaeda's hut and back multiple times while Inu Yasha stacked it for her so she could pick it up easier.  
  
After they got back to the village Kaeda smiled at them. "The villagers will appreciate what you have done for them." She told them both. Kagome smiled, "It was no problem Kaeda. It was actually Inu Yasha's idea."  
  
Inu Yasha just 'fehed' and blew it off. Kaeda smiled and thanked them again. Kagome yawned feeling weariness steal over her. She walked outside with her bag in hand.  
  
Looking around she saw a tree close but just far enough that she wouldn't unintentionally listen to whatever was said during the night. She leapt up into the branches and dug out her pillow laying it at the part of the branch where it met the trunk. She cast one more glance at the hut before she dozed her tail covering her body.  
  
Authors Note: Well I think I did okay on this. This is my first fan fic that I'm allowing people to read. If you find any problems with it please inform me because I like to be right not wrong and if you like it review because I want to know what you think. So far I already have the next two chapters and if I get some good reviews I'll post okay? That's the deal and I expect everyone who reads to review unless they don't like the story. Warning I don't like flames but if that's what makes you happy go for it. 


	2. The Road to Hell is Paved With Good Inte...

Chapter Two: The Road to Hell is Paved With Good Intentions Disclaimer: I do not own Inu Yasha nor do I claim to. I would love to own it however but I doubt God is going to be that generous. Although I do acknowledge Rumiko Takashi owns Inu Yasha and all the characters therein except for Akiko and Kaori. They are mine. And they might be showing up in this chapter. They will definitely be in the next if not in here just as a warning. Oh and if you are a Kikyou fan you will not like any of my fic as I hate her and revel in having her in pain or portrayed as the witch I believe her to be. Please enjoy I put my heart into this.  
  
Inu Yasha and company watched through the week as Kagome changed from human to hanyou as the days passed. During the daylight hours she was a human but during the night she was hanyou. She was dreading having to tell her family about the change and often cried herself to sleep without the others knowing.  
  
Sango woke up just after the sun had set. She was still getting used to adjusting her sleeping patterns. They had changed to allow Kagome to get used to her demon side easier. Miroku was still asleep as was Shippo. Sango got up and roused the group. Once she was certain they were awake she said, "We need to see someone who would have a clue as to how to cure Kagome. I don't think she wants to be like this." She looked at the door afraid that Inu Yasha or Kagome would come in to shoot her on the spot for saying what she was thinking.  
  
They were all glad Inu Yasha and Kagome were gone learning so that they could have this conversation. "Yes I think it is rather unfair for this to have happened to Lady Kagome also." Miroku commented. "But the thing is that the demon had said this was her greatest dream." He reminded her. His hands motioning in a way that said 'What can we do you know?'. She nodded in agreement. "Yes I know that but still. She shouldn't be forced into something like this. We should talk with Kaeda about this and see if she knows anyone who could help."  
  
Shippo shook his head. "She won't know of anyone who could help us. The only one she might recommend would be Kikyou and she wants Inu Yasha dead. And I believe she would kill Kagome given half a chance as Kikyou believes that he loves Kagome. So no we can't ask her." Sango looked at the kit not expecting such words out of one as young as him. "Think about it you know I am right. Although I will say this, Kikyou probably will know a remedy. But the fact remains that Inu Yasha does care for Kagome like he never cared for Kikyou." He shrugged his shoulders.  
  
"You are probably right Shippo. We know Kaeda can't know anything about it because she would've already offered to heal Kagome if she would've known anything about it. And the most she probably could do would be to suggest Kikyou." Sango reasoned.  
  
Miroku nodded, "But if we do go to Kikyou we'd have to do it without the others knowing because if they did. Inu Yasha would insist on going along and then Kagome would be hurt because she will remember all her past experiences with the dead priestess. And we would end up with no answers at all because all Kikyou would want to do would be drag Inu Yasha to hell with her or to kill him herself. Am I right?" Miroku looked to Sango.  
  
"So you don't think we should go? I do. I really want Kagome to be able to choose how to be. Not just be resigned to it because she has no other choices. But if anything I don't want to meet this Kikyou person at all. I just get this bad feeling from her." Sango looked to the door again wondering if all her blasphemy was going to draw the hanyou out of the woodwork.  
  
"You get a bad feeling from everything evil Sango its natural. And I would say Kikyou has definitely gotten evil if she wasn't while she was alive." Miroku said.  
  
"Which with the way she acts now it wouldn't be that much of a stretch of the imagination." Shippo commented. Miroku nodded once again.  
  
"The way I see it we don't necessarily have a choice, but if you feel that she would rather be this way I won't go." Sango said.  
  
"I know you don't mean what you're saying now Sango so I am going. I believe that if you are going Sango that you might be in danger sooner or later so." Miroku looked at Shippo. "You will have to stay here to stall for the others and tell them we got a lead on a shard and were going to see if the rumors held any truth before we come back and get the group so as to give Kagome ample time to adjust and do whatever else it is that she wants."  
  
Shippo nodded, "Got it. I promise I will do my best to keep them here. But if they come after you what will we do?" He picked up Sango's habit of checking the door.  
  
"I guess we could always go with the old saying: 'Honesty is always the best policy'." Miroku said a bit perplexed at the thought of failure. "But we had better pray to Buddha that that doesn't happen for I fear that Inu Yasha would likely have our heads. I think he finds Kagome very appealing in her new situation if you catch my meaning." He jokingly waggled his eyebrows suggestively.  
  
'Well Miroku will be Miroku.' Sango sighed. "I believe that too. If you've noticed he looks at her slightly different and more frequently if that is even possible." Sango looked out the door again and Miroku had to squash the urge to tell her to stop that she was making him nervous also. "He seems to like her in this new form as she is more open and free in this state and he can relate to her more. She is no longer the lowly human. She is now one of the lowly hanyous in his mind's eye, his equal. But I know that he loved her even before this whole thing happened it's too bad he doesn't know it or even realize it in the least. I think its all instinct with him and that I think will hurt her in the end if he doesn't do something about it."  
  
Shippo spoke up. "I think he knows it in the back of his head. But if he ever tells her. It doesn't matter how. just she is by what he's done to her before. she is a very forgiving girl. I think she loves him to just to get to the point."  
  
Miroku began to believe that Shippo was lying to them when he said he was a child. With all the knowledge he was spitting out he would have to believe that the kit was lying were it not for the evidence of his eyes. "Shippo just how old are you in human years?"  
  
"I don't really know I can't count that high." He explained quickly. Miroku nodded. 'That figures the kit might as well be older than I am.But if that's true.How old is Inu Yasha?' He frowned at that thought. 'Well if Shippo is any indication Inu Yasha must be really childish or a very good actor.' He shook his head the hanyou was definitely not an actor.  
  
"Well we just have to figure out how we are going to set this plan into motion as we haven't heard of Kikyou's whereabouts for months now. Who do you think would be the best to go to? Or do you think we should just go from village to village asking?" Miroku asked Sango.  
  
"Do you think Kaeda might know? But then how many people can we ask and expect Inu Yasha and Kagome to stay clueless and never start to wonder why we're asking questions like that when we are looking for shards. And I wouldn't put it past them to seek us out before we're through." Sango tapped her fingers against her temple. They heard a tree fall in the woods again.  
  
"If they take another tree back I don't think the villagers will let them in. They already have enough to last through two winters and with extra for just incases." Sango grinned. "But Kagome is enjoying that aspect of learning with Inu Yasha." She let her smile grow. "She gets to shock him at every turn with her newfound strength although I think she feels alienated from us. Kagome is going to be a very special demon." They looked at her like she was an idiot then went on to something else.  
  
"Well if you leave don't you think that may widen the gap?" Shippo asked. "If you leave without her she just may feel like you guys didn't want to be around her because you two never go off on your own to look for shards and without Kagome to be there it would be the luck of the draw if you find it." Shippo amazed them yet again for his words of wisdom. "She might feel you guys are disgusted by her or scared or something to not want to be around her."  
  
"You are right Shippo but how else are we going to be able to do it?" Miroku asked. 'Gee isn't this nice having to ask children what to do so you know you won't screw up?' He thought.  
  
"I think I am going to pry Kagome away from Inu Yasha and take a bath with her. Maybe I can find out some answers if I can get her alone to talk." Sango suggested. Miroku nodded his head, as did Shippo. "But you two will not talk of this without me present do you understand?" They nodded once again. She went over to Kagome's bag and dug out Kagome's bathing supplies. 'Unless that girl has been bathing with Inu Yasha, I think she will be appreciating this.' Thought Sango and smiled at the idea. Kagome and Inu Yasha taking a bath together yeah right he would probably be 'sat' until his back broke if he tried something like that.'  
  
Kagome sighed. Inu Yasha was grouching again but she didn't listen. 'I wonder what Sango, Miroku and Shippo are doing.' She thought. 'It has been so boring without them around for entertainment.'  
  
"Are you listening to me Kagome?" Inu Yasha broke through her daze glaring. 'I bet she wasn't paying attention again. That woman what would it take to get her to listen for at least five minutes without zoning out like she's been doing?'  
  
"Hmm? Sorry I wasn't paying attention." She sighed and sat down. He followed suit and sat in front of her staring at her. "I'm sorry Inu Yasha I know I should be." She looked down at her hands and looked at the dirt that coated them. 'How long has it been since I had a bath?'  
  
"Kagome what's wrong with you? You haven't been paying attention half of the time you're supposed to and you seem so out of it." He watched as she lay down on her back staring at the sky, as was her recent custom when she wanted to think. He played with her tail and stroked it for a while messing with the fur and trying to get her to say whatever it was that was on her mind.  
  
"Tomorrow would you mind coming with me-" Her face had been serious and strained slightly until she heard Sango tromping through the woods and stopped. "SANGO!" She yelled a smile brightening up her features. She got up and launched herself into her friend. "I haven't talked with you in forever it seems like." She commented.  
  
"I know that's why I thought you and I would go bathing as I figured you haven't in a while." Sango smiled and Inu Yasha knew that Kagome had probably been missing her friends. He would have to remember to let her do whatever it was she wanted for a little while. 'No not whatever she wants. but I should take her to see her family and then we will decide where to go from there.' He thought. 'But will she want to see her family? I guess I'll have to ask her once she gets back.' Assured he went to the village to find Miroku and Shippo to see what they had been missing in the village as of late.  
  
Kagome settled Sango on her back. Sango held onto Kagome's shoulders laughing as they soared through the air. "Goodness Kagome is this what you've been learning to do all this time?" Sango laughed again as they landed on a branch and Kagome took a very high leap just to make Sango's stomach flip.  
  
"Sometimes." Kagome landed next to the warm spring they had been to the last time they had taken a bath. They were quiet while they stripped and lowered themselves into the water. "What was really funny was when I had to try that with Inu Yasha on my back." She grinned and ducked her head under water covering her ears to keep the water out. When she came up her hair looked almost stark white from the damp while her tips looked like coal. She smiled reminding Sango of what she wanted to do for her friend. The fangs stood out in her smile making her appear the feral beast she had been transformed into. "He was so upset when he ticked me off while we were in the air and I used him so I could land."  
  
Sango laughed imagining her friend using Inu Yasha like a trampoline. Kagome laughed too. "What was really funny was when I was practicing my swipe and I caught Inu Yasha on the back of the leg." She grinned and flexed her claws. She relaxed her muscles in the water certain that she'd be using them later on that night and wanted to be able to move without stress.  
  
"What swipe? Can you show me?" Sango asked her demon hunter curiosity piqued.  
  
"Sure." Kagome rose out of the water. Sango was amazed at the muscle definition her friend had acquired. Her stomach was now well defined with her muscles standing out and her arms had gotten toned and slightly muscled also. She looked like she had been lifting weights or something during all this time with Inu Yasha. And Sango couldn't help but notice as Kagome stood in her birthday suit facing a tree her tail shaking the water out of it unconsciously. She raised her right hand and poised her claws. Her arm came down so fast Sango didn't see it but she saw the aftershock in the air. Golden arcs rippled for an instant before Sango watched as the tree fell in a clean cut.  
  
Sango had seen Kagome start it out and could now see the after math but the problem was she hadn't seen the attack. "Wow." It was all she could say in response. Kagome walked back to the stream and lowered herself back into the water sighing as the cleansing water coated her body once again. She took her bath bag and thanked Sango profusely for thinking to bring it. She scrubbed herself with the unscented soap after taking a cautious sniff of the scented before she passed it over to Sango not able to use it herself. Sango took it and gratefully scrubbed herself reveling in the dreamy scent it gave her skin. "Gosh you must be so happy to be able to do stuff like that Kagome." She commented hoping it came off nonchalantly.  
  
"Its okay. Its not like I have a choice or anything so yeah its cool." Kagome said absently as she dug out her shampoo and lathered her hair mindful of her ears careful not to get soap in them. Her ears flicked back and forth. The strong smell of her shampoo got to her. The sticky sweetness of it was making her sick. She ducked her head under water trying to hurry up and get rid of the scent. Her ears were instantly filled with water giving her have a funny ache in her head. She ignored it and scrubbed her head free of the offending smell.  
  
Kagome resurfaced only to find the smell was still there because it was soaked into her hair and the soapsuds had the aroma also. She glared at the bottle and was sorely tempted to hurl it into the bushes but remembered that Sango might want to use it. "Do you want to use this one or would you use something else." She sneezed the scent getting to her even more so as it swirled around her in the water.  
  
Sango shook her head taking pity on her friend. "Do you have anything else?" She asked. Kagome was grateful and she dug out some other shampoo whose smell wasn't so offending. Sango took it and lathered up. Kagome tilted her head trying to dispel the water that was caught in her ears. 'Genius you have that aqua-dry crud in your bag. Why didn't you think of that before?' She grinned with her memory and dug out the tiny bottle. Tilting her head to the other way she put drops in her ear until it felt like her ear was full.  
  
It smelled like vinegar but she took it not wanting to get swimmers ear or anything. Sango watched as her friend looked to be putting more water in her ears but this one stank something awful. "Kagome what is that stuff?" Her nose wrinkled. She could smell it from this far away and she could only imagine what it was like to Kagome's nose.  
  
"Its special stuff made to dry up the water in your ears so that you don't get a virus from having it in your ears for overtly long periods." Kagome turned her head feeling the stuff run out of her ear leaving it empty. She grinned and did the same to her other ear. 'That was great thinking on your part to have left that in your pack after your trip to the swimming pool a few months ago.' "If you get water in your ears tell me and I'll let you use this okay."  
  
Sango nodded but thought to herself, 'There is no way you would get me to use that smelly stuff in all your life Kagome.' This thought brought on a realization. "Hey Kagome. With you being part hanyou and all.. How will that affect your lifespan? Because I already know it affects your senses."  
  
Kagome blinked at the question. "I don't know. I never really thought about it." She looked thoughtful. "Well to be honest, I think I will only live as long as Inu Yasha does."  
  
Sango frowned. "Why would you say that?" 'What does she mean only as long as Inu Yasha does? Does she mean that if he dies she goes? Or does she mean that she will have about the same lifespan he does? Am I over thinking this? Putting too much into her words?' She thought for a while and decided that she was not over thinking it. Kagome could very well be thinking something else while she was talking.  
  
Kagome thought on this for a while trying to figure out the best way to answer her without appearing stupid. 'If Inu Yasha dies I don't want to live.' It came into to her mind so calm and unbidden, startling her for its clarity. 'Is that true? Do I not want to go on if Inu Yasha dies?' She shook her head and said instead. "I think I might have close to the same lifespan Inu Yasha does. But then again I am human also so I just might live the same time frame for regular humans."  
  
Sango nodded. 'Good for a second there I thought she was more engrossed in Inu Yasha than any of us have yet to believe. Boy would that have been a shocker.' She smiled. "Inu Yasha might be wanting you back now Kagome. I think we've been in here for a while now."  
  
"Yeah we have been in here for a while.. But it seems like I haven't been able to talk with anyone but Inu Yasha for quite some time." She smiled. "I do enjoy talking with him as he seems to say more than he used to but I missed you guys. Shippo, I hardly ever even see him anymore. I know you probably don't want to hear this but I almost miss having to watch you clobber Miroku after he gropes you." She went for another dunk not too concerned for her ears and played in the water for a while more. She loved the way that her body reacted to the cool glide of water on her skin. The icy fingers of water over her skin felt so good to her as she had been taxing her mind and body all week.  
  
Sango smiled and waited for her to surface. Then she nodded understanding fully what she had meant. "Yeah we've all been missing your frequent arguments with Inu Yasha. Getting to see him 'sat' is always fun." Sango swam over to her friend and climbed out of the pond. Once they were dressed she went to Kagome and hugged her. "Gods Kagome I missed you. We're all worried about you."  
  
Kagome held her friend. "Thank you." They hugged for a while more missing the way things had been. "I think I'm going to ask Inu Yasha if he will let us go back to hunting the shards or something because I really do miss you guys. And I want to feel normal again." She laughed at the thought. "You know only a year ago I would've thought this was the most abnormal thing I could do and now I miss it. I guess his endless nagging was so ingrained in me that I do miss it."  
  
"Kagome you take all the time you need to learn how to adjust. But. Don't worry about this we're looking for a way to see if it can be reversed so that you can have a choice. But don't get your hopes up because we're not too sure on where to go. Once we get back though I can promise you that we will have an answer for you." Kagome smiled down at her friend but couldn't help the clench of dread in her stomach. 'What if there was a way to reverse it? Would she want to go back to being a weak little human who held back the entire group and put them all in danger? No.' If she had a choice she would never go back to the way she was.  
  
Inu Yasha was thankful that Sango seemed to be distracting Kagome enough that she didn't seem to smell him. 'What if there is a way for her to change back? Will she want to? Probably. I didn't really want to change for Kikyou after all so why would she want to change for me? Wait for me? I must be really tired.' He thought on this for a while. He felt guilty for not letting her stay long enough to not miss her friends so much but with only him around. 'But she had said that she enjoys listening to me talk. Feh with how she's been paying attention lately I seriously doubt that.' He had been teaching her how to hunt her own meals and all the survival skills he had learned when he had been young and for the past two days she had been sleeping in the trees with him during the daylight hours.  
  
The entire group had adjusted their sleeping patterns in hopes of being able to talk with either of them. Inu Yasha had caught Shippo trying to find them. He felt bad for not letting Kagome know. 'I will go get that kit and let her talk for a while. after all she has been doing really well all week.' He smiled at the idea and instantly ran off to the village on a mission.  
  
Shippo and Miroku were surprised to see the hanyou come to the village without Kagome in tow. 'Thankfully they hadn't summoned him earlier but this may be just as bad. "Another survival test Inu Yasha?" The monk asked making Inu Yasha feel even lower. 'Even the monk knows that I've only been training her and not anything else.'  
  
"No. Her and Sango are taking a bath so I came to get the brat and you. After all Kagome hasn't been able to be with her friends for quite a while." Miroku and Shippo's jaws dropped and hit the floor. 'Inu Yasha is doing something nice?. Well it is for Kagome so I guess it wouldn't be that much of a stretch of the imagination.' Miroku thought.  
  
Shippo however looked at the hanyou like he had grown another head. "Are you serious? I could've sworn you didn't want anyone around while you were-" He was cut off by Inu Yasha's hand clamping over the boy's mouth. He grabbed the monk by the arm and brought them to where Kagome would be. They instantly ran at her once she arrived, their relief evident on their faces. Shippo, as usual, was attached to her midsection while the monk was hugging her tightly crushing them both. Inu Yasha had to tamp down the instinctive action of throwing the monk into the bushes. "Oh we missed you so much Kagome!" The little kit squealed.  
  
"It seems like ages instead of weeks since we've been able to talk with you or see you Lady Kagome. We might've thought you died on us were it not for Inu Yasha being the way he is." Miroku smirked and released her. "We wouldn't have found out about it in any case for quite a while."  
  
Inu Yasha felt better for letting them visit. He looked down and was happy for her but he wanted to pound the monk for saying things like that. 'He just knows that I'm here and he's trying to rub it in.' the hanyou thought, 'We'll see if I let him visit again.' He threatened inside his head, but the thought melted when he saw the joy all over Kagome's face. 'She really did miss them.' He watched silently as they all sat together and talked of events in the village.  
  
After Miroku and the rest had caught Kagome up, Sango burst out. "Kagome show them that trick you showed me while we were bathing." That statement caught Inu Yasha's attention.  
  
Kagome blushed and stood up. Miroku being the pervert that he is wondered what kind of trick it could be if Sango saw it while they were bathing. Sango would've beaten him to death if she could've read his mind at that moment. He opted to risk it and opened his mouth. "While you guys were bathing? What 'kind' of trick is it Kagome?" He knew what was coming but it still surprised him at the rate the ground was moving at to meet his face. After saying hello to the ground he sat up and was quiet waiting on her trick.  
  
They all watched silently as Kagome's arm raised up and slammed down so fast that none of them could catch it but Inu Yasha. Shaky streaks of power followed in the wake of her hand. Another tree was felled. "Wow." Miroku said stunned. "I guess I won't risk getting you to hit me any more Kagome." He smirked but his words struck a chord. She didn't let it show on her face but Inu Yasha could smell the difference in her scent. 'Kagome can do something like that?' He thought amazed. Sango laughed outright at him. "That is exactly what I said when I saw it."  
  
Shippo grinned. "So is that all you've learned from being out here?"  
  
Inu Yasha leapt down from his perch in the tree. "No that is not all she learned. Kagome I think you should take care of dinner for them or have you guys eaten already?" He wanted to hurt the monk severely for saying something that dense to Kagome.  
  
They looked at Kagome. "If you want to you can. We don't want to impose on you." Miroku said ever the gentleman. Kagome looked at Inu Yasha and made a face. He knew she was going to do it even though she didn't want to.  
  
"Yeah I'll do it but next time is yours Inu Yasha because you know I don't like gutting the things." She shot another look at him then took off. Once she was out of hearing range he glared at Sango. "You guys are thinking of a way to make her fully human again. And you stupid monk! How could you have said something so stupid to her?" Miroku's jaw dropped and Sango glared at him. Shippo laughed. "What's so funny?"  
  
"You are Inu Yasha." The kit replied still smirking. "You want her like that don't you?" He burst into more peals of laughter when Inu Yasha's mouth just worked and no words came out. Embarrassed at not being able to come up with a retort he cuffed the kit on the head. Shippo ignored it and continued in his raucous laughter. "YOU DO!" he shouted.  
  
Inu Yasha got mad. "NO I DO NOT! IF SHE WANTS TO BE THAT WAY THEN SHE CAN! I DON'T CARE!" Inu Yasha huffed and made Shippo burst out anew. Not to be made a complete fool he looked at Miroku. If he was going to look like an idiot so would the monk. "You though. You said that stupid comment about not letting her hit you anymore bringing up the fact that she's not like you guys anymore. How stupid can you get monk?"  
  
Sango and Miroku exchanged looks. "Well if Kagome heard that I know exactly what she would be thinking." Sango said before she thought about it.  
  
Inu Yasha fixed her with a glare. "You would. Would you?" He looked intimidating but she was so used to him it didn't bother her in the least. "Pray tell what would that be then?" His voice was mockingly sweet.  
  
"I don't feel like talking about this with you. Besides if it weren't for your hentai mind you wouldn't be in this situation now would you? Shippo probably just stating that now that Kagome was a hanyou like you that maybe you wanted to be around her more. Maybe for a person to relate with." She let that sink in for a while.  
  
Inu Yasha turned every shade of red at the implications. He had gotten indignant over something not even meant that way and practically screamed it out himself. " You're trying to change the subject monk. And well at least about that. now you know. I don't think of her THAT way." He said stressing 'that' as much as he could without shouting.  
  
Shippo not possessing much foresight opened his mouth. "Yeah that is so believable Inu Yasha." Before he could add anything onto that he was being chased around avoiding all the blows aimed for his head. Miroku and Sango sweat dropped. "Just when you think Shippo is grown up and mature he pulls something like this." Miroku commented watching the demons dully. 'But did I really hurt her with my comment? I didn't mean to. It seems as though Inu Yasha has gotten closer to Lady Kagome. Even more so than we had formerly imagined.'  
  
Kagome came back with a few rabbits. She quietly started up a fire and skinned the animals. 'This part isn't so bad as long as you don't remember that these things used to be alive... The skin almost feels like that Gak stuff that was so popular a few years ago.' Miroku watched as Kagome's facial expressions went from concentration to slight disgust then a broad smile. 'What in the world is going through her head to make her look like that? From what she said about the fish I'd be expecting her to be retching or something.' "Hey Kagome? What's so funny?" Miroku asked curious.  
  
"Oh sorry. I was just thinking of how much this skin feels like that Gak stuff that was so popular in my time a few years ago." She pulled on the skin and heard it make a wet ripping noise as the skin separated from the muscle. Every so often she'd use her claws to separate the skin from the meat. Once she had skinned the rabbits she fixed them for everyone to eat.  
  
"What's 'gak' I've never heard of it Kagome." Miroku asked curious. "Well its this putty like toy that you can play around with. It feels a lot like snot." She grinned at the comparison.  
  
"And children enjoy playing with stuff like snot?" Sango said always interested in anything from Kagome's time as they were all so different from now.  
  
The group was rather silent as they ate. All of them were lost in their own thoughts. Inu Yasha was contemplating what Shippo had said earlier. 'If I liked her I would've done something about it before now. So no worries there.' He coughed to himself but no one noticed. 'Well maybe I wouldn't have but that doesn't mean I do. does it? I know I really liked her before and now. I know I definitely like the way she changed. But. Well where else can you be honest but in your own head? Okay I like her but other than that I don't think its gone too far. has it? No it couldn't have. But I.. I feel like I know something and its itching the back of my head. There is something so familiar about her and I can't place it.' Not liking the way his thoughts were headed he decided to contemplate on what he needed to teach Kagome next.  
  
Sango looked at her now demon friend. 'Do you really want to be this way Kagome? I know you feel strongly for him but do you want to be this way to be with him? Do you love him so much that you would give up your life, your family, and your home? Wait is she even staying like this for him? After all she wasn't changed for him.. Or was she? That whole ".her greatest dream" crap was really freaky as this is what happened afterwards. What if Inu Yasha doesn't want her to be this way? ' She snorted of course the hanyou wanted her anyway she came. Sango could feel it. And it had come out in tremendous waves tonight. ' She tried to prevent the derisive snort that wanted to come out. 'After all we were going to see if we couldn't prevent this from happening because he said so.' Sango popped another steaming piece of meat in her mouth and savored the taste. 'Kagome may not like being this way but she does pick better stuff to eat than Inu Yasha usually does.'  
  
Kagome watched the flames crackle and snap. The green tinge to the blue caught her attention and she felt as if she were drowning in the flames. 'That is so pretty. I wonder if anyone else thinks so. Oh well colors are colors. Does Inu Yasha remember his childhood all that much? I wonder if what I did really happened because the rest seemed true enough-' "Hey do you guys know what happened to Myouga?" She asked. 'I really want to find out about that village and I have a feeling that Myouga will know about it.'  
  
Inu Yasha shot her a curious look. "Why would you want that coward around anyway?" He thought for a moment. "I'm not too sure as I haven't seen him since I brought you here. What about you guys?"  
  
Sango shook her head as did Miroku. "We haven't seen him for quite a time either. Last we saw of him was when we rested and he went into Kirara's fur we haven't seen him since." Sango answered wondering what use the flea could be to Kagome.  
  
"Oh." Kagome said dully. "Hey Inu Yasha do you know how to get a hold of that flea?"  
  
He frowned. "Of course I do. You pick him up when he's not looking or he's busy jabbering on or sucking blood."  
  
"That's not what I meant. I mean how do you contact him? Or does he just show up?" She said trying not to get frustrated that she knew different meanings of words that they didn't and it sometimes clashed when she asked a question.  
  
"Well as far as I know he just shows up but I think I could be able to track him if I felt like it. But it's been so long since any of us have seen him that the trail would be old or gone by now and I have no interest in hunting him up anyway. Why is it so important anyway?" He looked at her curiously. 'What in the world could that flea be good for that Kagome would want him so much as to want me to track him?'  
  
"I just had a few questions I wanted to ask him but they're not that important so don't worry about it." She waved it off and continued thinking. 'I guess I'll just have to keep and eye out for the flea. It would really answer a lot of questions if I could figure out what it was I saw in my dream.'  
  
Shippo sat and watched as Kagome ate and stared at the fire some more. 'She probably knows something and wants to ask Myouga something about it. Oh well it will come out sooner or later.' He munched some more not really deep in thought. After he finished he leapt off the log and chased after a moth.  
  
Miroku sat farther away from the fire than everyone else. He watched as everyone was lost in their thoughts. He noticed that all of them but Shippo had at least one worry on their mind. He frowned watching them all. 'I don't think Kagome minds being like this much. Maybe she wants to be this way. Is she really doing this because of Inu Yasha like everyone seems to think? But Sango seems convinced that we should give her a choice as it appears Inu Yasha doesn't want her to have one.' He smirked. 'Shippo sure did hit the nail on the head tonight. I don't think I will ever get used to this new sleeping habit. Although my vision has gotten better in the dark but still what can you do in the night?' He grinned as a few hentai ideas came to mind. He looked at Sango and briefly wondered what it would be like to try them out with her. 'Probably wonderful but she would never. I would end up badly damaged and beaten for just suggesting it.'  
  
"Oi Miroku!" Miroku tensed as he heard the hanyou bark out his name. 'This can't be good.' He thought and was greatly rewarded. "What's so funny over there? I'm certain the rest of us would like to know what's so nice as to make you grin like that." He stressed 'that' and Miroku seriously wanted to do him bodily harm.  
  
"Oh its nothing." He tried to wave the hanyou off but Inu Yasha knew what it was that Miroku had been thinking and wanted to see him get hit. 'I guess he's still trying to get me back for my comment to Kagome.' Inu Yasha smiled. "No really. Whatever it is I think we all want to hear it right?" He looked at Kagome, Sango, and Shippo. They nodded oblivious to what Inu Yasha was trying to do to Miroku. "See? Everyone wants to know Miroku." He smirked.  
  
Miroku thought really hard on what he could say and opted for the truth. "I was just thinking on what Shippo had said earlier Inu Yasha."  
  
"And what was that Inu Yasha?" Kagome asked unknowingly while Inu Yasha shot death glares at Miroku. "Miroku what was it?" Kagome asked when Inu Yasha just turned red and said nothing pretending to be engrossed in his dinner.  
  
Shippo grinned and started to laugh. Kagome looked at the group who were all laughing at Inu Yasha. "What's so funny, I missed it?"  
  
Miroku smirked and opened his mouth but before he could say anything Inu Yasha was steamed and growling in his face. "You say any thing monk and I swear you will not have to worry about bearing a child any more as you won't be able to." He said with deadly calm. Miroku couldn't help but laugh even harder. "You think its funny?" He grabbed Miroku by the front of his robes intending to hit him.  
  
"INU YASHA! SIT!" Kagome said quickly. Inu Yasha promptly took a face dive. Once he regained control of his body he grinned. Miroku had broken his fall and was currently knocked out from the force. "Oh Miroku I am so sorry!" Kagome exclaimed as she ran over beside the pair. "Inu Yasha what were you thinking?" She fumed. "That wasn't very nice."  
  
"Hey you're the one who 'sat' me." He pointed out. "So don't go blaming me." He smirked as her mouth worked for a little while. 'She just might do it again but it'll be worth it this time. That serves that monk right for hurting Kagome.' He looked at the unconscious monk. 'Yep it was definitely worth it and if she wants to do it again I'll just get her back later when we're training.'  
  
"If you wouldn't have been threatening Miroku I wouldn't have said that word." She rolled him off of Miroku and the monk breathed easier. 'It is so hard to pound him into the ground like that but sometimes I swear.' Inu Yasha could feel his limbs come back under his control and grinned as he got up. Pins and needles pricked his legs from where they weren't exactly awake yet.  
  
"Well enjoy their company. I will be back in a little while. So don't do anything stupid." And with that he leapt off into the trees. Kagome watched as his bright red form disappeared out of her line of vision. She turned back to Miroku, the monk was starting to slowly regain consciousness. She was suddenly struck with an idea to make sure that tension didn't come up and she wouldn't be able to yell about Inu Yasha without him being there to hear her. "Do you guys want to go somewhere?" She asked after rethinking it for a while.  
  
"Like where Kagome?" Asked Shippo looking around after having finished off all of his dinner. Sango finished too and Kagome had a feeling Miroku wouldn't be able to eat for a while without being violently sick. Kagome helped Miroku stand up and get his balance.  
  
"Lady Kagome. I almost feel sorry for him. That impact is so hard." Kagome flushed and apologized again. She put a supportive arm under his shoulders but dropped him when she felt his hand stroke her tail. "I wasn't touching you perversely Kagome so what was that for?" He rubbed his sore backside. "Need I remind you I just had nothing but muscle slammed into me? And no matter how much he may have enjoyed the experience I by no means did."  
  
"I didn't mean to slam him while he was holding you but I had a feeling he was going to hit you so I said it before I thought it through. And I dropped you because I don't feel like having you touch me like that. I don't exactly like it." She snapped at him as she looked at Shippo remembering his words and couldn't help but think that they were been equals and it was still wrong. "I think I want to go to this one place I've been going to while Inu Yasha was sleeping. I think you guys would love it but I'm only going to show you guys this once okay?"  
  
They nodded and she picked up Shippo. "If you can transform Kirara we can get there faster." Kagome suggested looking at the little cat beside Sango. Sango nodded and told the cat to transform. Once Miroku and Sango were seated on Kirara because Shippo was in Kagome's arms, Kagome led the way making sure not to lose the demon cat as she was now faster than the cat.  
  
They traveled for a while circling around sometimes to make sure Kagome was on the right trail. Until Kagome spotted the little path that led underground and told them to stop. Kirara went back to her kitty form and waited outside as the rest of the group followed Kagome as she led them underground into a maze of tunnels. They followed diligently even when they couldn't really see and were mainly relying on the sound of her steps. She finally stopped when they couldn't see anything at all. "Hold on guys there is something I have to do really quick. And don't worry you're safe down here. I'm the only other person around who knows of this place." They heard her footsteps move away slightly. She moved a gigantic boulder that had been erected and pulled them in. Light blinded them all temporarily. She closed the opening as soon as she was sure they were all inside not too worried about Kirara.  
  
Sango looked at the brilliance of the sight before them. Crystals and other various rocks were glinting light every which way and shining rainbows along the walls making a dazzling sight to all their eyes. "Oh Kagome how did you find this?" She whispered still in awe moving in slowly afraid that this vision would fade and reality would set back in.  
  
"Um I made it." That statement brought shocked looks from everyone. She pointed to the ceiling of the cave where a giant glistening stone was set and distributing the light around the room. "The light of the moon is being magnified a hundred times by that crystal up there. And as you can see-" she gestured around her. "The light is being reflected everywhere from these other crystals."  
  
"How did you find all these pretty things Kagome?" Miroku asked looking around him. He walked slowly into the room and touched some of the stones feeling the warmth of the light from them. The colors were brilliant and reflected on their faces as they passed changing from red to green and to blue as they moved farther into the room. Kagome smiled to herself watching her friends move around as if dazed.  
  
"I found some of them in the ocean and other various places. Some of these I cut myself." She picked up one of the prettier stones and handed it to Miroku. Shippo had long since leapt out of her arms and was currently gallivanting in a rainbow oblivious to the huge grin that looked like it was going to split his face wide open. His little body radiated all the happiness he was feeling in this mystical place and he just couldn't contain himself as he ran around.  
  
Miroku took the stone she had given him and held it up to the light. "How could you have found the time to escape while Inu Yasha was sleeping? Surely he would've woken up and captured you before you got too far." He saw little girls running around playing in the sunshine and he felt utter peace steal over him. But the odd thing was the children had youkai and humans mixed together. And they were playing and getting along as if they had always been the best of friends. He got the feeling that they were and had always been that way. "That is my favorite stone there Miroku. Isn't it beautiful? Well one night this week Inu Yasha disappeared for a while and I found some of these pretty stones namely these." She held up an armful of beautiful gems. "And I felt drawn to this place as if I knew where it was and I was just remembering some place I loved to go although I know I've never been here before." He just nodded dumbly not able to speak. "I guess my feet just took on a will of their own and I ended up in here." She smiled at him.  
  
She picked up a multicolored one and handed it to Sango. This one showed Sango brilliant colors and shades that she had never seen before, almost like the dream that Kagome had had the night of her being a full demon. She felt happy, extremely happy. "What is this magic? Is this something from your time Kagome?" She stared dreamily into the stone. 'I have never felt such a strong feeling of peace and happiness before.' She mused to herself.  
  
"No. I found it in this time and it's just something that I love to watch a lot I can't really explain it. Its like a memory isn't it?" She smiled at Sango's face which was split in a wide grin. She looked at Shippo who was currently running through the color spectrum laughing as blues and reds crossed over his tiny body. He laughed gleefully.  
  
Miroku tore his gaze away from the enchanting crystal. "Wow Kagome. Do you know who these children are?" Kagome bit her lip. 'They're the children from my dream.' She thought but kept it to herself instead shaking her head. "No but they are peaceful to watch are they not?"  
  
"Do all the stones make you feel this way Kagome?" She didn't reply instead she picked up a deep purple stone and handed it to him. She didn't feel very nice giving him this stone but she knew he would be able to take it better than some others she might have let see. She felt that Inu Yasha for one would've said something less than nice about it and she knew Sango would be the same but Miroku did have compassion in him. 'And so does Inu Yasha but he would never show it.'  
  
He held it up to the light. He saw the same little girls but they were grown women now in their prime. They were washing clothes in a stream near their village laughing together as friends. The youkai women were in their natural form but still more underdeveloped than the human ones. He smiled until he saw a shadow fall over them his heart clenched in his chest knowing the evil that was about to befall them.  
  
An army of youkai leapt at them and Miroku watched as they were mauled and beaten to death staining the clothes in the stream with their blood. He saw the good youkai die at the hands of the bad ones trying to protect their human friends who couldn't do so well on their own. Once the battle was over he saw what little of the people were left shove out all the youkai believing that it was them who had betrayed them. He watched as some of the good youkai that had protected their friends look at the ones whom they had saved and such pain passed over their faces. They left the village sadly and alone.  
  
He felt tears run down his face. He felt so sad for them that their friendship had been severed so horribly. Kagome took the stone out of his hands and replaced it with the one that had made him happy. But now that he knew what was to happen to them all he could feel was that gut wrenching sorrow. "I'm sorry for showing you that one Miroku." She apologized as she put the stone on a shelf behind her. She leaned against the wall and looked at her friends they were all in their own little worlds.  
  
"Well I had asked if you had any sad ones. And I guess I got what I wanted. But you know who they are don't you?" Miroku looked into her eyes trying to get some answers. Sango took the purple stone out from behind Kagome and looked at it herself.  
  
After she finished watching it she handed it back with a look of disgust on her face. "It would figure that something like that would happen to those poor people." She commented feeling a sadness come to her but ignored it. "Not all youkai are like Inu Yasha and that right there is a prime example.  
  
Kagome sighed and looked away from them. "Its getting close to morning we might want to leave before I go back to being human and can't help you guys find your way out." She turned away from them and walked out waiting on them to follow her out. Once they were out the light disappeared and she slid the boulder in front of the door. She walked out silently and looked at Kirara.  
  
She smiled at the cat as she transformed without being asked. To lighten the mood Sango chimed in. "Miroku you should take a ride on Kagome it is so fun. She is so good at pulling stunts in the air and as long as she doesn't mind doing that for you, its really cool." Sango looked at Miroku waiting for his answer she was certain that Kagome wouldn't mind and wasn't disappointed.  
  
Kagome smiled and looked at him also. "I don't care. If you don't think it's too degrading to ride on my back you can." He shook his head saying he didn't mind. She pulled him onto her back. Shippo sat between Sango's legs as they settled on Kirara. They took off and after she got really good momentum, Kagome flipped a few times just to hear Miroku behind her take in a deep breath. She could hear his heart hammering against his chest and was almost surprised it didn't explode from the pace it was at. She landed in the village just as the sun rose and she turned human. She fell down under his weight and he quickly got off.  
  
"Kagome that was so cool. I am sorry that I squashed you." He helped Kagome to her feet. She smiled feeling her exertions catching up wither body. It was just at that time that Inu Yasha came up to them. Miroku didn't notice however as he was babbling on about how he had to do that again if she wouldn't mind and how he loved the way that it had felt as she had flipped and he had felt like he was going to die. "That was just the most awesome experience of my life." He finished.  
  
Kagome only smiled. "I just bet you would be a roller coaster fanatic." Before they could ask her what that was Inu Yasha interrupted.  
  
"Where were you guys? I came back and no one was there." He glared at Kagome. "You know a lot of little tricks that I haven't taught you yet." She blinked at him. "Come on we have somewhere to be." He hauled her to him and waved at the group. "Get some sleep you guys. We'll be seeing you tonight maybe." He punctuated that by giving Kagome a stern look.  
  
He leapt into the air holding her in his arms. "Where are we going Inu Yasha?" Her eyes closed from weariness as she rested her head on his chest.  
  
Her weariness from hauling Miroku and whatnot was starting to catch up with her. He looked down at her briefly and landed by the well. "As soon as you get a little sleep, we're going to go visit you family so that they won't think you died on them." She yawned and curled further into his back.  
  
"I know what you mean when you say that you feel weak while you're a human Inu Yasha. I can't smell anything and I have to get so close to smell you. And when your days activities catch up with you." She sighed as sleep came knocking but before she let it take hold she murmured. "Thank you, for letting me stay with them last night Inu Yasha." And then she was out.  
  
He leapt into the God Tree and settled her on his lap while she slept. He watched her sleeping face and thought about what she had said. "Do you really like being a hanyou Kagome?" He asked her quietly.  
  
He was shocked when she heard him and answered. "Yes I do Inu Yasha. I." And she was quiet again. He listened her breathing and her heart beat told him she was still sleeping. He tried again. "Kagome are you asleep?"  
  
"Yes." She sighed in contentment and snuggled closer wrapping her arms around his waist. He looked down smiling. "Will you answer any question I ask?" she nodded. "Will you remember this when you wake up?" She shook her head in negation. He grinned. "Hey Kagome, do you want to stay a hanyou forever?" She nodded. "Why?" Her face scrunched up and she scooted closer to him.  
  
"Because you don't think I'm weak like that and I like. not being compared.anymore to. Kikyou." Her eyes moved behind her eyes signaling that she was going to wake up if he wasn't quiet. So he stayed quiet. 'I never thought you were weak Kagome. I just said that to get at you.' He thought. 'And I don't mean to compare you to Kikyou it just comes out that way.' He thought a while longer. "So the main reason you want to remain a hanyou is because of me?"  
  
She nodded. "If it weren't for you I wouldn't be here." Her breath evened out again and he snuggled down and went to sleep himself.  
  
Kagome slipped into an unconscious slumber. All of a sudden Inu Yasha's childish face swam before her eyes. His face was set in horror and pain so deep she wanted to cry. She reached out not thinking that she shouldn't be able to touch him.  
  
Child Inu Yasha saw the charred beaten mass that had been his mother. His tiny body shook as pain reverberated throughout his small frame. He felt a comforting presence surround him and he gave way to the tears that had been threatening to spill. Arms wrapped around him and he buried his small face into the stranger's chest. He didn't stop to think that it might have been an enemy come for the spoils of the battle that had taken place looking for the riches rumored to be abound in his village.  
  
He cried and cried until he cried himself to sleep but before it took him over he looked to see who was holding him. It was his angel who had left that food for him earlier. He wanted to know just what she had looked like and here was his chance. She had black hair and compassionate blue- gray eyes. Her face was a mask of pain for him and he buried his nose in her neck again. She rubbed his back soothingly and stood with him in her arms.  
  
He felt her stand up as she took him away from the sad scene and brought him into the woods far away from any danger that may have or could befall him. Kagome lay the child down in a tree as she sat and watched over him until he stirred. When he woke up he was silent but held out his arms for her to come to him. She went to him and cradled him in her arms. "I won't leave you." She assured him as she stroked his back again.  
  
He curled into her comforted by her words. She rocked him as he fell back asleep. Before he could though he looked at her. His childish voice coming out rather roughly from the tears that he had shed earlier. "Why won't you leave me?"  
  
"Because I love you." She answered him before she thought about it. She put him down and looked at him. "Are you hungry?" His stomach growled in response. She smiled. "Wait here for a bit okay? I will be back and don't worry no one can get you while I'm here." He nodded trusting his angel. She came back with a bow and arrows. He wasn't too sure where she could have gotten those but he didn't care at the moment. She took him by the hand and brought him with her. She spotted a boar and looked at him. "Is that something you would eat?" He nodded so she strung an arrow and let it loose. It flew and hit its target killing it instantly.  
  
She moved over to it. "Did your father teach you how to hunt and prepare your dinner?" He nodded so she gestured to it and sat near him as he took care of it. She felt the tug of reality. She put a hand on one of his. "I will come back for you." She hugged him holding him tightly to her chest she released him.  
  
Inu Yasha watched as his angel disappeared before his eyes. She gave him a beautiful smile before she left and he felt reassured that she would return as he turned back to the meal she had left him.  
  
Kagome awoke in Inu Yasha's arms. "I'm done sleeping." She said her face betraying her nightmare. "Kagome are you okay?" She nodded looking away from him. She sat up and looked to the well quite a ways below them. "Would you carry me down." She looked at the ground then at him. He sighed and brought her to his lap and leapt down. She unwrapped her arms from around his neck and sat on the lip of the well. He crawled up beside her and put an arm around her waist before he pulled them in. The familiar blue light surrounded them.  
  
He forgot to reposition themselves during the fall through the centuries so he landed on top of her. She was sprawled out on her stomach under him. He flushed red and hauled off of her while at the same time pulling her to her feet. "Sorry I didn't mean to land on you." He said quickly.  
  
He picked her up and leapt out of the well. He set her down and quietly gestured for her to go inside her house. She walked up the steps and slid the doors open. She didn't see the car and she couldn't remember what day it was. She guessed her family might be out. She walked inside calling for them. "Mom, Sota, Jii-chan? Are you guys home?" When no one answered her she went to the kitchen. A note was tacked to the board on the refrigerator.  
  
'Kagome Sota is at a school field trip and Jii-chan received a free trip to a spa from his chiropractor. No one will be home for a while if you come. There's always something in the pantry so help yourselves as I'm sure your little friend Inu Yasha will be along for you in no time. And just in case I bought another first aid kit for you to make use of. We all love you and hope that you will come back again when we are all home. Love Mom.'  
  
Kagome finished reading it and sighed letting out the breath she had been holding in. She faced Inu Yasha and held out the note to him in case he wanted to read. He just shook his head so she explained instead. "We can stay here for the night. No one's home and no one will be for a while. I think Mom went with Sota on that field trip his school has been planning on since the first of the year. And Jii-chan is off at a spa." She looked at the pantry. "She said to help yourself if you feel hungry."  
  
He nodded. "Are you still tired. You must have went a long way last night and I could imagine you might be." He looked at the stairway leading upstairs to her room. She just silently took his arm and brought him to her bedroom. She laid him down on the bed then she grabbed a towel. "I'm going to take a shower okay?" He nodded absently and she left.  
  
He heard her start up the shower and rummage around on the sink for something. After a while he heard her draw back the curtains and step in. He waited until he could smell the shampoo she was using. "Has she already done something that would make her feel dirty? After all she had a bath just last night with Sango." He thought aloud as he sat up and looked down the hallway. "What is so appealing about a shower? She takes one every time that we come back. Does she think there's something nasty in the well? Did I do something?" With these things said he wandered down the hallway and into the bathroom opening the door quietly.  
  
"Hey Kagome." He barked. Kagome squeaked not expecting him to come in there with her. "Yes Inu Yasha?" She squeezed out some of the suds in her hair. And rinsed her body.  
  
"Why do you always take a shower when you come back? It never fails. Its like the instant you're on the other side you take a shower. Is there something in the well that makes you feel so dirty?" He sat on the toilet lid and pulled his legs up under him waiting on her answer.  
  
"Well." She frowned. "I just don't like taking cold baths and that is about all you can take over there so when I get back I look forward to a nice steamy hot bath." She paused and looked out of the side of the curtains at him. "Would you like a shower? Just so you can see what's so appealing about it."  
  
He frowned at his feet. 'She wants me to take a shower with her?' "Kagome I don't think it can fit us both in there. It looks rather small." He looked up when he heard her laugh. "What?" 'She was the one who suggested it not me so what's so funny?'  
  
"I didn't mean together. I meant after I was done I would let the water keep running for you and I would wait in here with you if you wanted me to. Maybe so that I could tell you what to use so that you don't end up using something on places that you shouldn't or anything like that." She smiled at him.  
  
He blushed as he let that sink in. "Oh. okay I'll wait." She finished up showering and her hand came out of the shower dripping. "Could you hand me a towel Inu Yasha?"  
  
"Won't it get wet if you take it in there?" she bit her lip knowing he was right. Before she could say anything Inu Yasha realized what it was that was bothering her. "I won't look I promise." Just to prove it her turned around on the seat and looked in the heat fogged mirror.  
  
Kagome pulled the curtains aside and picked up her robe tying it around her waist. She wrapped her hair up in a towel. As he waited he traced his name on the mirror just like Miroku had shown him. After that he continued on with hers then Miroku's he was starting in on Sango's when she said, "Get undressed Inu Yasha. You can't very well go into the shower dressed." He shrugged and shirked his clothes. "Now step inside the tub."  
  
He followed her instructions and felt the steamy water pound against his chest. He moaned as it hit his skin igniting a fire in his body. "No wonder you love this so much Kagome." He groaned again and put his face under the stream of water.  
  
Kagome smiled at him through the shower curtain. "Okay all you have to do is pick up the shampoo bottle and pour some of the gel in your hands so that you can lather it in your hair."  
  
Inu Yasha looked at the multitude of bottles around him. "Ah Kagome you're going to have to poke your head in here and show me which one." He looked at all the bottles. 'Why oh why did I never learn how to read very well.' He shifted his shoulders under the shower spray. 'God this feels so good.'  
  
Her head came through the curtain its towel missing and her hair rumpled from trying to dry it with the towel. She grabbed a green fish shaped bottle. He took it from her hands and she blushed when she saw him and quickly darted out. He heard the door open and shut. He blinked. "Kagome! Where do you think you're going? I'm gonna need your help." He heard her footsteps come back as she approached the door. She hesitated then stepped in. He poured some of the smelly liquid into his palm and lathered it in his mane. It took a lot of the bottle to foam up all of his hair as it came to his waist. "Hey Kagome what do I use now that I got my hair soapy?"  
  
She leaned in again this time keeping her eyes to the floor of the tub. She groped along the wall until she hit the shelves. She went down until she put her hand on the slippery wet rock. She handed it to him and he sniffed it while trying to keep a hold of it. She laughed when it flew out of his hands and onto her head. He smiled as he took it back. "Just don't hold it so tightly okay?" She flashed a brilliant smile then darted out of the curtains again. He finished showering but stayed under the spray not used to the pleasurable feelings roaming through his body. He could think of two other things that might feel as good but decided to squash his hentai thoughts.  
  
"Hey Kagome. I'm done how do you turn this thing off?" He stepped out not thinking. Kagome's eyes bugged as she saw him completely before her. She blushed quickly and threw the towel in her hands at him. He caught it and looked at it not too sure of what to do with it. He looked at her for a sign and she indicated that he should wrap up like she was. She sighed in relief as she went to the tub and turned the knobs so that the water stopped.  
  
"Well as you're definitely staying the night." Kagome led the way to her room and closed the door behind them out of habit. She dug through her drawer and pulled out a pair of boxers she had borrowed from her friends brother but had forgotten to give them back. "Here you can sleep in these." She dug out the gigantic Nike shirt. It was black with the customary check under the name. He took it from her and slipped them on while her back was turned and she was in the dresser. She pulled out a white night dress and a pair of white cotton underwear. She turned around the white robe caught on the dresser. She quickly yanked it out and retied it. "If you're hungry you can eat."  
  
He looked at her body then thought better of making the comment that had just run through his mind. He turned the covers on the bed down and lay in the clean sheets. He faced away from Kagome to give her the privacy she wanted so badly. His ears twitched as he listened to her robe falling and the soft whispers of the nightgown as it slid over her shoulders. He could hear her movements as she quickly jerked on her underwear. 'Doesn't she usually wear a bra?' He wondered at the smartness of asking her about it and decided that the least she could do was 'sit' him but she'd be breaking her bed in the process. "Hey Kagome. How come you're not wearing one of those 'bra' things that you always wear in our time?"  
  
'Our time? When did he start thinking of it like that?' She pondered briefly before she crawled under the blankets near him. "I don't wear them to bed. They're uncomfortable and I don't like them." She answered simply. She curled up under the covers the smell of new sheets comforting her. Inu Yasha turned around on the bed and looked at her calm face. She was oblivious to his stare so he kept on. Her lips were slightly reddened from their contact with the waters heat. He wet his lips but looked at her hair which was still really damp. It smelled like her and her only. No more smelly shampoos for her as she can't stand it with her newly sensitive nose. He moved his face closer to hers and inhaled. He loved the way she always smelled like the aftermath of a thunderstorm. That calming clean filling scent. She scooted closer and he was forced to move his head back or risk her knocking their heads together. He watched amused as she shifted her nose closer to his neck and he heard her breathe in deeply.  
  
She had to move closer. She could barely smell him and that was all the reminder she had of 'their' time as he so put it. She breathed in barely catching his smell with her weak nose. It was so nice. It was him. That was all she could say about it, the scent reminded her of the ocean the crisp saltiness of the sea even though he had probably never been and wouldn't either. She thought about it. He definitely smelled of the ocean and a little of pine trees but that was only because he was in them so often she reasoned. 'Maybe when I sleep again I will dream of him.' with that thought in mind she drifted off slowly.  
  
Inu Yasha heard as her heartbeat slowed to a pace that said she was dreaming. He reached out a hand and traced her lips with his claws. They opened slightly and he could smell that mint smell that always came after she brushed her teeth with that funny paste. He turned away still uncomfortable with the thought of actually being in love with her as the whole group seemed to be suggesting he was. 'She seems so familiar now. I know that sounds odd but for some reason everything about her. Even when I met her and thought she was Kikyou there was something different about her that just didn't set right with me. Its like I knew her before. Something happened before she met me that day by the tree and I just can't put my finger on it.' He shook his head clear of those troubling thoughts and slept with her.  
  
Kagome looked around her. She was laying on top of the fall's blanket of leaves. Inu Yasha was asleep in a tree beside her. She looked up at the sleeping child. His little outfit was the same as the one he wore in her time with him. "Inu Yasha are you awake?"  
  
The little child started and instantly showed his claws. She sat up showing herself to him. Upon realizing who was there he launched himself from the tree and into her lap. He nuzzled her neck trying to convey to her how much he had missed her. She smiled into his hair. "Inu Yasha what happened that you are so wary while waking up?" She tilted his head back for her to look into his eyes.  
  
His amber stare still disconcerted her but she no longer minded as she had when she had first met him. "Very bad demons came after you left. They tried to kill me but I got away." He assured her.  
  
Tears filled her vision as she held him close to her. "That happened after I left? Oh God Inu Yasha, I am so sorry I left." She hugged him and felt his ears tickle her cheek as they turned this way and that listening to the tears roll down her cheeks.  
  
"Why are you crying Angel?" His hands came up and cupped her cheeks. He looked her in the eyes trying to figure her out. "It wasn't your fault they came. They were just bad people my mother said so." He nodded to affirm what he had said. His claws wiped away her tears but they just kept coming. "I'm fine now that you're here Angel."  
  
"Inu Yasha my name is Kagome, not Angel." She smiled. "And I'm crying because I don't want you to be hurt at all." Her tears started to slow down and she was able to breathe easier without the tears clogging her throat.  
  
"Ka-go-me." He rolled her name around in his mouth a few times. She smiled at him and nodded. "I like your name Kagome." He curled up in her lap. "Sleep with me for a while. I'm still tired from those bad youkai." He yawned widely giving Kagome a good view of his fangs. She smiled at him some more. On impulse she kissed his forehead as she had done for Sota before he would go to bed. Inu Yasha snuggled into her arms even deeper and went to sleep with her curled around him.  
  
She let him lay like that for what seemed like hours so she figured she still had quite a while before Inu Yasha would wake her up from her dream. Although the farter the dream progressed the stronger her conviction that it wasn't a dream but a glimpse of the actual past. 'Isn't that lovely? I'm in the past going to the past when I'm really from the present. I wonder how this will affect Inu Yasha if he remembers.' She sighed just as the child hanyou stirred. His childish eyes opened and peered into hers. She smiled at him again. "Are you my guardian angel Kagome?"  
  
She smiled at him. "Do you want me to be?"  
  
He shook his head. "If you're an angel that means that God will eventually have to take you back and I want to be with you forever Kagome. You came for me and I want you to stay with me." His little hands fastened themselves to the front of her nightgown and she smiled down at him. She looked into his eyes. "I am not an angel Inu Yasha but I will always be there when you're in trouble or really need me. Eventually I will be there." She smiled at him and hugged him again. "I am yours Inu Yasha always yours. That's the reason I'm here after all. For you." He smiled at her.  
  
He took her hand and led her to a small cave that was nearby. "We can stay in here for a while Kagome. I think something's coming I can smell it." She held his tiny hand as it was almost engulfed by her own larger one.  
  
"When will it be getting dark her Inu Yasha?" She looked at him as he scented the air trying to figure out what it was that was coming something was in the air that just didn't sit right with him. He glanced outside. "A little while why?" Kagome nodded. "You don't smell something coming. You smell me. I'm going to change so don't worry. I will only look different but it's still me." Just as soon as she said that the sun set completely and she felt the surges of power roll through her body like usual. Inu Yasha watched his childlike mind trying to comprehend what was going on around him.  
  
Kagome looked at him her dual colored eyes fascinating him. In her hanyou form she looked very different but she still smelled the same so when she held out her hands he ran to her and held her. "Inu Yasha I'm still me." He clung to her waist as she stroked his hair. He felt her claws on her fingers and he looked up into her face. She smiled and he saw her fangs. She grinned when she realized he loved the way she looked so she twirled her tail around to the front and wasn't in the least surprised when his eyes bugged and he touched it gently. He ran his hands through the fur as he had before in the future. 'That's a confusing thought right there.' She mused to herself.  
  
In Kagome's house however Kagome had turned hanyou with Inu Yasha right in front of her. He looked outside. It was still broad daylight. 'What is going on? Is she going to be hanyou completely?' He waited for her to wake up from her change but she stayed oblivious. Back in Kagome's 'dream' Inu Yasha was showing her around the cave. He led her through the caverns and little hallows. Kagome saw one of the stones that had been in the room she had completed. She took him by the hand. "Inu Yasha I know where we are." She pulled him out of the cave and brought the stone with her cutting it with her claws as she went. Once they were completely out she handed it to him. "In the morning hold this up to the sun's light. It will show you beautiful and enchanting things." She felt the familiar tug of reality and held him to her chest. "I have to go again. But there is a cave down there with a boulder blocking the entrance. Only you and I may go in there. A large gem is in the top of the cave which will magnify the light of the moon to make it appear as though it is day. Stay in there. I may meet you in there and that will be our room okay?"  
  
Inu Yasha nodded and pressed a kiss to her temple imitating her from before. "I love you Inu Yasha." She said before she felt consciousness steal over her.  
  
Child Inu Yasha felt her body dissipate in his arms. He sat down after he felt her leave and waited until her smell left the air but he could still feel her presence around him. He sniffed his clothes where she had been holding him her smell was there too. He stood up and walked farther into the cave looking for the place she had described. It seemed forever before he found it but he had to wait until morning before he could try out the crystal she had given him. 'Its just like Kagome said.' He looked at the light coming from the stone in the ceiling. It showed rainbow patterns all around him making him smile. 'Will she be coming soon? I hope so.' He looked to the door where he had to move the boulder as she had said. He smiled and closed it. 'She said she would appear in here after all and I'll just go out to get something to eat later.' He sat on the floor and with nothing better to do napped until the sun's light penetrated the crystal above and the light in the room diminished. Her face stayed in his mind even after he fell asleep in her hanyou form and her human form.  
  
In Kagome's time Inu Yasha sat up and looked down at Kagome as she showed signs of waking up. 'Why did she say my name so often in her sleep? I was right beside her. I don't get it.' Her eyes fluttered open. He looked into them. "Kagome? Are you okay?" She blinked the sleep out of her eyes and he had to repeat the question to make sure she had heard.  
  
She yawned and sat up. "I'm okay Inu Yasha really." She crawled off of her bed and started for the door. He could see her tail swishing under the fabric of her pajamas and he grinned. "What?" She turned around wondering why he hadn't made a move to get up and follow her.  
  
He shook his head and followed her down the stairs his eyes always trailing back to her tail. "Well what were you dreaming of that made you ask after me so often Kagome?" he had that strange feeling of deja-vu that had been happening all through the week and it had only gotten stronger when she had turned into a hanyou just now.  
  
She blushed and walked into the kitchen. "Are you hungry? I am. I think I'll fix some eggs or something." She rummaged through her pantry bending over making her tail even more noticeable as it poked out of the bottom of her night dress. "You know I've been thinking lately. How in the world does Sesshomaru stand his tail? I mean his is so long and I'm certain that it must get annoying because mine does too and mine is so much shorter than his."  
  
Inu Yasha looked at her. 'Why is she avoiding my question? Its not that hard for her to answer is it?' Instead he said. "Well Sesshomaru really hasn't known what its like to be without his tail right? So of course he wouldn't get annoyed with it. Here why don't you try this?" He stepped up behind her and pulled up her dress. Taking her tail he wrapped it around her waist and over her shoulder to stick out of the neck of her dress. "Now it won't get in your way will it?" He smiled at her.  
  
Kagome tugged down the hem of her dress and blushed badly. She dug in the pantry and pulled out the bread. She moved over to the refrigerator and brought out the carton of eggs. Turning on the stove, she brought out a pan to fix the eggs in. Inu Yasha watched as she went about the task. "Kagome? What were you dreaming about?"  
  
She paused then continued on. "Inu Yasha may I ask you a question before I answer yours?"  
  
"I suppose so." He regarded her warily from his perch on the counter. 'What could be on her mind that she wouldn't want to tell me about a simple dream?'  
  
"Inu Yasha do you?" She paused. He waited for her to go on. "Do you feel like we met before? I mean, I know we met at the tree and please don't think I'm odd but. Do you think that we met before all that?" He was shocked. 'She feels it too?' "Um. Inu Yasha?"  
  
He realized he hadn't answered her question. "Why? Kagome is something going on that I don't know about?" He stepped up behind her again leaving his seat on the counter. She stepped back and ran into the hard wall of his chest. He put his hands on her shoulders and looked into her eyes. "Kagome?"  
  
She sighed as she saw his eyes bore into hers. "Inu Yasha I've been dreaming of the past. And. I um. saw what happened to your.. family and your mother." His hands let go of her shoulders and he stepped away. "I know and I. I want to take you somewhere after we eat. We can come back here later to talk with my family but. Would you come with me?"  
  
He looked back at her from the doorway. "I don't care." Kagome flinched. 'You idiot you shouldn't have said anything. Maybe you should've lied to him? You really shouldn't have brought it up to him.' She continued fixing the eggs trying not to think on how she really lacked tact. She sighed as she brought him some eggs to the table for him. She set the plate in front of him and pulled out a few slices of bread placing them on his plate.  
  
Moving back into the kitchen she took the eggs she was supposed to be eating and dumped them in the garbage having lost her appetite. She left and went upstairs not going into the dinning area where she knew he was. She opened up her dresser and dug out an old purplish shirt. Pulling the worn material over her head she fished out a pair of navy blue sleep pants and tore a hole in the bottom to make room for her tail to come through. She looked at the black pants she wore and walked downstairs. Inu Yasha watched as she came in the room her tail dragged the ground. Her shirt was really old and it looked like it used to be purple but too many rounds in the washing machine had faded it to a dark pink. Her pants were really loose and tied at the waist with a draw string. The pants covered her small feet as she walked over to him sitting beside him she waited until he finished eating.  
  
In feudal Japan after Inu Yasha had taken Kagome away to the well, Sango and Miroku were already on their trek to find the dead miko. So far the only village they had passed hadn't said anything of knowing her but they looked as if they feared speaking of it. This only led them to believe that she was somewhere near or had run through this village sometime recently.  
  
"Do you really think we should be doing this Sango? I don't think Kagome really minds being the way she is." Miroku said trying for the thousandth time that day to change her mind. "Sango?"  
  
"So you side with him?" She asked referring to Inu Yasha. "He doesn't want to give her a choice either." She glared at him. "Don't you want Kagome to be like she was? As a human not a hanyou or a demon." She hadn't needed to clarify it for him but she was trying to stress the fact that she was changed and she wasn't capable of just letting it happen.  
  
Miroku kept quiet. He didn't feel like going through with that argument again especially with her in her current mood swing. "Sango you know it isn't that. I just don't think that Kikyou will help Kagome. I would think that she would much prefer to see Kagome dead along with Inu Yasha for obvious reasons. I just." He sighed and tried to make her turn around. "Listen. How many times has Kikyou been helpful to us?" He tried to point out. "What would make her want to start now?"  
  
Sango stopped and turned to face him. "I just. I want Kagome to have a choice. Maybe if she doesn't we won't have to worry about this but don't you want to know that at least we tried?. Or maybe. Look Miroku-" she put a hand on his arm. "If you were in her place would you want to change back?"  
  
"No. I wouldn't." He looked into her eyes. He wasn't surprised when he saw her opinion. "Are you saying that you would? Kagome loves Inu Yasha whether she wants to or not I don't know. But she does and I do believe that with the way that demon cursed her it is something that she wanted or else I do believe she would've put up way more of a fuss than she did." Sango looked away from his gaze. "How many times have you noticed Kagome looked hurt after Inu Yasha told her she was weak or implied that she was useless? Don't you think that maybe she wanted to be this way maybe so that she wouldn't look so weak in front of him? After all he is always protecting her and she may want to be his equal for once." He scratched his head in frustration trying to get his point across to Sango.  
  
Sango let go of his arm not wanting to see the truth in his words. "She should still have a choice." She murmured not really convinced any more. She turned from him and fiddled with her boomerang.  
  
"Maybe this was her choice. But if it will make you feel any better, I will still go with you but lets just find out more about her condition and what she can do while she's in it now okay?" Sango nodded mutely. "We will still find Kikyou just to make you happy and see if there really is a way to turn this around okay?" He nudged her shoulder to get a reaction from her. "We never did get any sleep last night or this morning and it's turning that way for the afternoon also unless you would let us take a slight rest okay?"  
  
She nodded again. He looked around at their surroundings. "Lets go over there." He pointed to a small copse of trees and moved toward it. She followed slowly thinking over what he had said. '"Maybe this was her choice"  
  
How could that have been her choice? ".and her greatest dream." That's how it could be her choice.' She thought bitterly. That night she awoke to the feeling that something wasn't right. Miroku was already up and Kikyou was seated near him. 'Oh that's what's wrong.' She thought belatedly. They were already discussing Kagome. "Listen monk I am not exactly sure how this came about. I have only heard of this happening once before and that was from Inu Yasha himself when he wasn't fully awake."  
  
She looked at Sango and her gaze hardened if that was at all possible. "Nice to see you have awakened. If I had been about to kill you, you would be dead by now. Only your monk friend woke up when I was near enough." She went back to looking like her usually cool and awful self making Sango want to strangle the dead miko for looking that way at her. She gritted her teeth.  
  
"So what do you know about it?"  
  
"I do know that she will probably out live you but she may not live as long as Inu Yasha himself because of her turning back to human every day." She stared blankly at Miroku again making him nervous and disgusted. Praying to every god he had ever heard of that she would just go back to hell where she came from he looked away.  
  
"Is there any way that you know of that we could turn her back to being a human? Or to give her the ability to become a hanyou all the time?" He asked her calmly not letting his feelings show on his face. Sango envied his ability to keep his disgust hidden whereas she couldn't and it rolled off of her in waves. Miroku glanced at her before giving the dead miko his attention again.  
  
"So you would like for her to be able to become a hanyou all the time if she's not able to become human again?" Sango nodded surprising Miroku. She pondered this for a while before answering. "I would know nothing of it besides the fact that because it was a death wish that meant a lot to that demon it won't be able to be reversed so no she will not be able to go back to being a human although there may be a way to turn her into a hanyou full- time." She stayed quiet for a while.  
  
"So why is it that she may not be able to go back? Surely that wimpy inu youkai was not so strong as that?" Sango asked openly showing her hostility. Kikyou favored her with a glare for her tone. "Because if what the monk says is true and Kagome wanted this even slightly there is no way that we will even be able to reverse it as she wanted his dying wish to come true and therefore her miko powers combined with the power of the Shikon no Tama compounded that into her soul." The miko was quiet for a while before she stood and made to leave. "So no there is no way it can be reversed like that. That is not how the jewel works."  
  
"Wait is there a way that we can find out more about her condition? After all we know so little about it and we want to help her in any way we can. " Miroku asked.  
  
"And I suppose that Inu Yasha sides with you too in finding any way to help her.Yes there was a such a place but I am not so certain that it will work as the village that held such knowledge burned down quite a while before even I died." She smirked to herself. "I guess Inu Yasha will be having even more problems with my reincarnation."  
  
"That doesn't mean he will leave her for you." Sango said smiling wanting to get in a parting shot for when she had first awoken and been insulted. The miko glared before she turned to leave again. "Where was this burned village located?"  
  
"Why not ask Inu Yasha after all it was his home." She smirked then disappeared into the night.  
  
"Are you satisfied Sango?" Miroku asked thoroughly upset with the entire situation. He looked in the general direction she had left. Sango watched as a shudder ran through his body that he had been suppressing. "I never ever want to talk with that thing again." 'That was definitely not what I would call a woman.' He thought to himself.  
  
She was quiet as she got up and went over to the monk. She went down on her knees in front of him and hugged him. At first he thought she had read his mind but then she spoke. "Thank you houshi-sama. I really appreciate it. That you actually did this for me even though you didn't want to. Thank you." She released him and stepped back waiting for him to stand up with her. Miroku stood up and followed her as she made her way back to the village so they could give Shippo the news. 'Well at least Inu Yasha doesn't have to worry about her becoming fully human anymore and maybe she will be able to live as long as he will.' Miroku pondered on the way back.  
  
"What do you think Kikyou will do with her new information Sango?" Miroku wondered out loud as he looked at the leaves and bushes rustling in the slight wind. He could hear the birds chattering in the trees as if nothing monumental ever happened in the world.  
  
"How should I know and frankly I for one could care less. I do not like that woman and what I wouldn't give to personally deliver that 'rest' that Inu Yasha seems so intent on giving her." She cracked the knuckles of her fist. 'Yeah I would love to send her to where she belongs.'  
  
"Well maybe we should care? What if she does something with that knowledge that puts Lady Kagome in even more danger? What would we do then? Because it would be all our fault as that woman didn't know of it before we asked her for her assistance-"  
  
"Not that she gave a whole hell of a lot." Sango inserted. Miroku nodded. "Yes, not that she supplied us with everything we wanted to know but did you really expect her to? I know I didn't as she has feelings for our hanyou still." He tapped his chin with his fingers. "Though they do involve his death and to me are quite sick but none-the-less she does and knowing this just may make her want to figure out a way to destroy Kagome for good. How would we be able to take it if we found out it was our fault for blabbing what we knew to her biggest enemy? For all we know she could go to Naraku with that information and who knows what he'll do with it?"  
  
"Miroku if you don't stop with those guilt questions I swear I will beat you over the head and leave you for dead without a second thought." Even though she wanted to deny it his words had struck home. 'Darn him for making me feel so guilty and nothing has happened yet!' She wanted to scream at him but she knew that wouldn't help in the long run as he would probably only bring the facts back up.  
  
In Kagome's time she sat on her bed waiting for Inu Yasha to finish dressing. 'Is it really that hard for him to figure out what goes where?' She huffed as she faced her wall not wanting to face him no matter how much he said it didn't bother him as she had already seen 'everything' last night. She blushed at the memory. His body had been so toned from all that demon fighting. Much better than the models in those stupid magazines and that was saying a lot as so many girls drooled over stuff like that. And she had most certainly seen way more than those magazines showed. His stomach muscles were so defined that she was surprised that people in his time looked down on him so because of his body.'Maybe they're jealous? I know I would be if I were a man.' She started to think of running her hands over his muscles and realized what she was doing. That was definitely not something she needed to be thinking of right now.  
  
"I'm done." He called from behind her. She turned around and saw that the shirt she had leant to him was a little smaller on him than she had imagined. It clung to his body but he had shredded the sleeves off of the shirt and they were laying in the floor. The sleep pants he was borrowing looked similar to hers except they were a dark blue. It was hard work to keep her jaw from hitting the ground. If she had been uncertain in her thoughts before she definitely knew now he was built. She nodded keeping her blush at bay. "Small wonder you took so long. If the tightness of that shirt is any indication I wouldn't have been able to get it on you." She stood up and went down the stairs to the laundry line outside where she had hung his clothing to dry after having them run through the washer.  
  
She took them off the line and draped them over her arm. "Are you ready to go? We can leave these in the village at Kaeda's after all she won't mind. Plus they're not done drying yet."  
  
He nodded and followed her into the well. He had to be careful when they went down the steps as her tail was still dragging the ground in her unhappiness. 'What could've gone wrong with her that would make her so unhappy?' He thought. Kagome sat on the lip of the well waiting for him. He stepped up behind her placing his hands on her shoulders he rested his chin on top of her head. "Kagome what's wrong with you? You didn't eat any of the breakfast you fixed for yourself. You threw it into the garbage in the kitchen before you got dressed."  
  
Kagome sighed and looked into the depths of the well. Even with her enhanced vision she couldn't see the bottom of it in the dark. "There's nothing wrong with me Inu Yasha it's just your imagination." 'Even to my ears that excuse sounded lame.' She mentally berated herself for the thousandth time for ever bringing up the subject of his mother.  
  
"Kagome it is not. I have been watching you all week long and I am not so stupid when it comes to stuff like that plus you are all but radiating unhappiness in your scent. Do you think I'm so stupid?" He tilted her head back with his chin and looked into her eyes.  
  
Kagome sighed. "No I don't think you're stupid. I'm sorry Inu Yasha I didn't mean to bring that up this morning. I made you upset because I brought up your hometown and what had happened. I didn't mean to hurt you. I really didn't." She pulled away from him and dropped in the well. She quickly climbed out and waited on him. 'Oh well he can find me by following my scent if he wants to.' With that in mind Kagome moved off into the woods walking slowly so he could catch up with her easily if he wanted to.  
  
'That was what was bothering her? She thought she had upset me? Well you must've looked pretty mad or upset for her to be like this.' He reasoned in his head. He looked down at where she had dropped their clothes on the ground. 'Well you need to tell her that you're not upset.' He paused. 'You could use this to your advantage.' He quickly squashed the thought and leapt through the well. He jumped out. "Kagome-" He cut off when he didn't see her. "Where did that girl go?" He scented the air. Following his nose and he went after her.  
  
He caught up with her after about five minutes. "Hey Kagome wait up." He called and she stopped and looked at him. She stayed silent but once he got to her side she turned and continued walking. "You know I really don't like this whole silent routine. It's getting rather old." He grumbled as he grabbed her arm and stopped.  
  
"I'm sorry I wasn't meaning to be rude. Its just you always complained that I talked too much so I figured as I have nothing to say I might as well listen for once." When he didn't answer her she continued on. "You know I've said this before but I really like these new enhanced abilities."  
  
"No you've never mentioned it." He said as he followed. Her tail was off the ground now but still rather low. He trampled on the urge to take it in his hands. 'She may not like that you know.' He said to himself.  
  
"With my new sense of smell I can catch your scent from up here and I can hear your breathing. It seems like you didn't run all that fast to get up to me. And with my new strength I don't feel the rocks or splinters that are biting into my feet right now. But-" She stopped and placed her hands on his face when he got close enough. "I can feel things a lot better than I used to." Her hand dropped and she continued walking.  
  
"So where are you taking me?" He asked still not ready to let her off of her guilt trip just yet. "You've been there before but I don't know if you'll remember. Its really special to us both you won't know until we get there." She let her words sink in. "You know you don't seem so averred to talking of your father. Why don't you?"  
  
"Um." He frowned. 'Where had this thought come from?' "I don't really know. I guess I just wasn't around him enough to know much of him. That was Sesshomaru who was close to him. I'm guessing that Sesshomaru was with father when we were attacked. I was-"  
  
"I already know." She paused and looked at him. "You're mother was who you were with when your village was attacked. She threw you out the window to save you before the bad youkai came and murdered her amongst the flames that engulfed your home."  
  
His jaw dropped and he was unable to say anything but, "How- how could you have known? You weren't even around then and I know Myouga didn't tell you as I would've killed him. Sesshomaru wouldn't have told you and even if it could've been him I would've smelled him around you if he would've gotten the chance to talk with you." His mouth worked a bit more but he stayed silent.  
  
"I know that you stayed in the woods for a while afterwards but you don't remember much of it and I can't fathom why. Although I do know that you have to remember where we are going if only that and nothing else. You should know how I found out once we get to where we're going." She looked away from him still moving towards the cave. 'He has to remember if he doesn't I will die.' She thought. 'If he doesn't remember me I will be crushed. But it's only right that he doesn't remember you after all they're only dreams who's to say that they're real after all?'  
  
"Hey Kagome?" He ventured after they had walked for about a half hour in silence.  
  
"Yes Inu Yasha?" She looked towards him they were close not too much farther. "I wasn't upset with you this morning. It really didn't hurt me that you brought up my mother." He confessed and was satisfied when he saw her smile. Suddenly a wave of deja-vu hit him and he had to stop. 'That scent in this air is so familiar.' He looked around him and saw claw marks on a trees bark to the right of him. He moved over to it and looked closely. "Oh my God Kagome." He said quietly as he realized whose claws had made those marks. "That is my mark. Why is it on this tree?"  
  
"Well maybe you put it there so that you wouldn't forget where I'm taking you." She said not looking at him or anywhere in particular. "Don't think too hard on it you should think of it soon."  
  
Suddenly he was hit with a memory.  
  
'Why don't you make a mark to signify where this place is so that you never get lost again?' The woman had suggested to him with a smile her pale hair bathed in blood the tips of it darker than the rest. "Kagome" He realized. Her body was equally soaked in the blood of the enemies she had just fought off for him. His little hands tore into the nearest tree making the familiar strokes he had always used. 'Like this?' He asked not too sure that was what she had meant. 'That is just fine.' She took his small hand in her own and smiled at him dazzling him slightly. He hugged her as he had grown accustomed to and put her scent into his memory never to be forgotten. 'You are my Angel Kagome.'  
  
Inu Yasha came out of his memory with a start. "YOU!" He exclaimed. His eyes bugged as he looked at her. "You're my angel that I couldn't forget." She smiled softly at him and walked on. He ran up to her and wrapped his arms around her waist crushing her to him. He buried his face in her hair memories rolling over him in waves. "I came to you Inu Yasha but don't tell me of all that you remember as I don't know it all yet. I have only visited you three times to my knowledge and this last time I took you here."  
  
"You're taking me to our cave." He stated. She nodded and he carried her the rest of the way to the cave. She rolled the familiar boulder out of the way. Once inside he looked around, "You've added a few things since we were last here."  
  
He looked down and picked up the purple gem that Miroku and Sango had looked at. "No don't look at that one Inu Yasha." She took it out of his hands and picked up another one handing it to him. He looked at the one in her hand that she hadn't wanted him to see.  
  
"Why don't you want me to look at that one Kagome?" He looked curiously at her hand. She sensed the gentleness that radiated out of him. 'Could him realizing who I was to him really bring about this great of a change? Not like you don't like this change.' Her mind taunted her.  
  
"I just don't want to make you sad. This one is full of nothing but sadness." He still looked at it wanting to see it but to satisfy her he held up the one in his hands and looked into the crystal. It glowed briefly blinding him slightly. Once the light faded away he looked into the calming depths of the sea. Strange birds he had never seen were flying over the water their strange call echoing in his ears. He saw great mammoth gray beasts rise out of the water along with ones that were black and white. They made the most gorgeous sounds he had ever heard. "Oh Kagome." He whispered. "This is so beautiful. What are these creatures in the water?"  
  
She looked at his face and the peace that was radiating from it. She knew she would likely never get this chance again. She stepped up to him, as he was completely absorbed in the little world in the crystal he didn't notice.  
  
She placed her head on his chest and wrapped her arms around his waist and hugged him. "Those creatures in the water are called whales and those birds in the sky are seagulls. She smiled up at his face. He couldn't see her or feel her until he decided to pay attention to her but he could hear her words. Before he could come out of his trance she released him and sat down at his feet gazing up at him.  
  
"Are those really whales? They make the most amazing sounds Kagome. Have you heard them?" He got down on his haunches to her eye level. "I have never seen anything so awesome Kagome."  
  
"Would you like to see them up close? I could get you there you know to actually see them in person." She smiled at him as he sat in her lap like he had slept last time she wrapped her arms about his waist as he leaned back. "I would take you. You know that right?. It is so beautiful to see them at night. I could take you to the pier tomorrow night and you could watch them with me." She looked down at him. He looked forward with his head resting on her shoulder. His hands were folded on his chest and he was breathing deeply. She gave into temptation and ran her hands through his long hair.  
  
"Hey Kagome?" She continued stroking through his hair waiting on him to say what was on his mind. "I- do you think that. How come I didn't recognize you when you came to me? You know when you came through the well that first time."  
  
"Inu Yasha I don't really know. Maybe we agreed to make sure you wouldn't remember until now or maybe there was something that was blocking your memory or maybe. Maybe you just didn't remember because you had believed in your heart that it was Kikyou." He shook his head. ".as it didn't seem to be on the front of your mind. Either that or this is a new development and I changed the past. And that might explain it." She rested her hand on his forehead as she thought about it.  
  
He stood up and paced around the room trying to remember. He clutched his head feeling the beginnings of a migraine that had been happening all week when he tried to place this feeling of deja-vu. She waited on him to lay down again so she could continue to stroke his hair and sighed. "Don't think on it Inu Yasha. I'm not hurt that you don't remember me as you think you should. Besides maybe you were remembering you just squashed it?" She suggested.  
  
He looked into her eyes and fingered her light blue hair that was hanging in her face. He ran a hand along her cheek. "Kagome?"  
  
"Yes Inu Yasha?" she mimicked him by stroking his jaw also. "Do you still-?" She looked confused by his question so he dropped it. "I really would love to see those whale things. Would we be able to go and do that later though?"  
  
She nodded. "Sure we could do that when we go back to visit my mother and family." She looked at the crystals around her. "I suppose we have a whole night a head of us. is there anything you would like to do in particular?"  
  
He shook his head. She smiled then stood up. "If that's the case then. Come with me." She grinned and grabbed him by the hand brining him to a small alcove.  
  
Memories assaulted him again.  
  
'Come on Inu Yasha we can sleep here for the night.' Her smile loomed over him. He smiled back slowly and nodded. 'Yes Kagome if you want to.' His childlike hands were wrapped up in hers. He could feel the warmth of her body through his clothes as she picked him up and tossed him in the air making him laugh at the feelings that were rolling around in his stomach. She smiled at him like she always did and he could see an inner light shinning out of her eyes when she looked at him. 'We'll sleep here for the night and then we'll go on an adventure in the morning.' She put her forehead to his and grinned at him making him feel giddy inside. 'Hey Kagome?' she looked at him again as she folded back the covers and climbed under them. 'Yes?' She held out her arms and he crawled into them curling up against her stomach. 'Why don't you act like all the other people I've met? You act like I'm no different from any other human and I've always been told that I was.'She cradled him close to her chest. 'Inu Yasha whoever said that is wrong you shouldn't have to change yourself to make other people happy. And besides you are beautiful to me just the way that you are. I don't want to see you any different from how I see you now.' He felt her lips in his hair as she spoke. He was comforted by her words and fell asleep in her arms in the small cave. He remembered collecting the crystals wither the next day. He came out of his reverie and jumped.  
  
He looked at her. "You should be going to sleep now."  
  
She frowned. "Inu Yasha we just got up before we came here? How am I supposed to just go to sleep?" She sat down on the blankets that still sat in the place they had left them. He sat next to her and looked at her still not able to believe her fully.  
  
"Kagome how come you always.Why?" He couldn't really form the words so she didn't answer him. She just wrapped her arms around his shoulder and pulled him down to lay next to her. She radiated the comfort he needed and he was grateful. He turned in her arms to face her. He rested his forehead against hers and relaxed. "You always come when I need you. How in the world do you know how to do this to me?" But she was pretending to be asleep so he let her stay that way.  
  
Authors Note: Okay people this is the second chapter but I put it out thanks to Heather so if you like this story then thank her first because I wouldn't have put it out at all with out her I forgot to mention that when I first put the story out and I want you guys to know that. Any one who reviews me whether bad or good.. I love you and thank you so much for sparing a few seconds to make a mediocre comment to help along a poor little girl. (hint hint) I really like reviews and I want to see them thank you. I tried my best but if anything seems off tell me and I will fix it okay? Once again thank you bunches for sparing the time to read this. 


	3. Love Gets More Selfish the Deeper It Get...

Chapter Three: Love Gets More Selfish the Deeper it Gets  
  
Disclaimer: I know I've said this before but here it is once again.*drum roll* I do not own Inu Yasha or any other characters therein besides Akiko and Kaori and yes they should be appearing in this chapter. Nothing has changed since the last chapter I still think Kikyou sucks-  
  
Inu Yasha:*growl* You know you really shouldn't talk about people you don't know so well Danie its not too nice.  
  
Danielle: Like you would know smarty pants. Its not as if you practice being nice on a daily basis. You know very well just what she's after as I have explained it so many times.*evil glare* Be nice or I just might have YOU attack Kikyou instead.oops I just said something I shouldn't have didn't I?  
  
Inu Yasha: You idiot you just might give away the plot before you get there *growl* Besides she's already dead so why attack her do you not have any compassion?  
  
Danielle: Oh shut up you know you like your current sleeping arrangements with Kagome I can change that you know. *is greeted by silence* thank you for seeing it my way. Now on with the story.  
  
Child Inu Yasha bared his fangs at the intruders. They were on his territory and they would just have to get off because he wasn't leaving. There were three large neko youkai all of them fierce looking but he was not going to give in. He flexed his claws hoping to look threatening but when they laughed those hopes were dashed. "Hey you idiot cats what in all the seven hells are you waiting for? Are you afraid of me?" He taunted not giving in to the fear that he would lose.  
  
That got them. The largest charged at him. He stiffened his posture and closed his eyes willing his death to not be painful. When he only heard screaming and nothing else he opened his eyes to see Kagome in front of him. Leaning slightly he saw the gory bloody mess that used to be three demons. He grinned at her. "You really did come when I needed you." He was surprised when she crushed him to her chest. She released him and brushed at her clothes. She was a real mess. Her hair was matted with blood and so was her body. But she was beautiful to him.  
  
"How did this happen Inu Yasha? Did they force you from our cave?" She looked at him searching for any scratches or signs that he had been hurt. He was still trying to understand that she was there with him again.  
  
"I went out to get some food and I got lost. I wandered around looking for the cave but they ran across me before I could get too far." He looked down at the berries and fruits he had gathered that were now decorating the floor. They were now covered in blood and guts and he seriously didn't feel like eating it now. She looked at it also making a face at them.  
  
"Well maybe you should make a mark over there to signify where this place is so that you never get lost again." He wasn't too sure what this would help but he did as he was asked and was rewarded with a gentle smile.  
  
"Like this?" She nodded.  
  
"That is just fine." He ran into her arms and allowed her to carry him back to their cave. He was content to lean his face against her shoulder. "Later I will take you around to mark a few more trees so that you won't be lost again and you will be able to make it back with ease." She grinned as she touched the tip of his nose. "We need to take a bath you know that?"  
  
Inu Yasha smiled at her and nodded. She showed him where the cave was first then brought him to a stream. She set him on the bank and dropped her clothes. She stepped into the cold water but was happy that it was warmer than she had originally thought. "You need to get out of yours also. I won't let you in here if you're fully dressed." She grinned at him and turned as he dropped his clothes. He leapt into the water causing her to laugh as she was splashed. "Come here you." She reached out and grabbed him by his upper arms. She ducked him underwater and pulled him out again scrubbing his hair. He giggled as her claws scratched his head and made a funny feeling in his stomach.  
  
After they had played in the water and were dried off sufficiently she raced him back to the cave. Laughing she got there a few seconds before he did. He careened into her knocking her on her butt but she shook with the force of her laughter. She looked around he had brought a few crystals that he had found into their cave. She picked up one. "Where did you find all of these?" She sat down shivering. He went over to her and cuddled into her hoping that she wouldn't be so cold.  
  
"I found them just around our cave. You looked like you liked these kinds of rocks." He rubbed her arms as they were really cold. She smiled and moved off into the back of the cave showing him a blanket. "Come on we can sleep here tonight and we'll go on an adventure in the morning."  
  
"Yes Kagome if you want to." Her hands grabbed his as she smiled at him sweetly. She grinned at him as she was struck with an idea. She put her arms under his and tossed him way up high in the air. He squealed as he came down. She caught him and repeated the action. She set him down as she crawled under the covers. Opening the covers for him in invitation, he crawled in and snuggled against her stomach.  
  
"Hey Kagome?" she looked at him and waited. "Why don't you treat me like everyone else? You act like I'm special or just as normal as every other kid. And I've always been told that I wasn't special or even wanted."  
  
Her arms tightened their hold on him. "Oh Inu Yasha any one who told you that was wrong. You shouldn't have to change yourself to make other people happy and besides you are beautiful to me just the way you are." He could feel her heartbeat against his back. She sighed at the thought of someone hurting a child let alone her Inu Yasha.  
  
He sighed and clung to her. "I love you Kagome." He fell asleep in her arms. She frowned down at him. 'How in the world could someone be so cruel and to a child at that. Inu Yasha was just so loving and caring. if anyone didn't see that they were blind.' She pressed her face into his hair and passed out. 'If anyone attacks him like that again I will kill them mercilessly.Isn't that what you did just today?' Her mind asked. She shoved the thoughts aside and went into a deep sleep.  
  
Inu Yasha woke up in the comfort of his angel's arms. He smiled against her neck. 'I wonder what the surprise is.' He smiled some more and leaned back looking into her face. She was a human again she turned that way every morning. 'Maybe her demon side just doesn't like the sun.' His childish mind figured. 'She's pretty either way though and she's here just for me.' He scooted up closer to her face and looked at her. 'She looks so tired still.maybe we just haven't been asleep that long.'  
  
He ran a hand over her cheek and felt her pulse jump in her neck as his hand traveled over her exposed skin. His fingers played lightly over her eyelids which were smooth and soft to his touch. Her eyes fluttered open slowly and focused in on him. He waited for her to speak. "Hey you're up early." She looked around "..or maybe I'm up late." She laughed quietly and he curled into her again. He was pleased when her arms wrapped around him and held him there. "So the adventure is up to you. What would you like to do today?"  
  
He smiled. 'What would I like to do?. I would like to do a lot of things but which ones.' He got up stretching willing the sleep to leave his body. "I want to go out and see something I have never seen before in my life." His little fangs made themselves known in his little smile which was followed by a jaw popping yawn.  
  
Kagome bit her lip playfully. "Like what? Is there anything you've never done before?" She stood up shaking the dust from her clothes. He launched himself at her and she caught him as she fell into the dirt grunting. He gave her his best puppy dog eyes. "I want to go out and see where you come from."  
  
She shook her head at him. "That is one thing that I just can't give you Inu Yasha as I'm not too certain if it would work here as I'm not really supposed to be here." He looked crestfallen. "But I could take you to another place that in time will become special to you for other reasons."  
  
His eyes lighted up again. "You know my future don't you Kagome?" He leaned forward placing his hands on either side of her face trying his best to appear dominating and fearsome.  
  
She laughed at him and ran her hands over his ears gently. He rubbed his head against her hand forcefully really enjoying her ministrations on his ears. "Well I do know what happens to you and all I can say is that if I tell you there may be a horrible time confusion or something to that extent. So I'll take you to that special place and we can play there for a while." His chest vibrated his pleasure as she never stopped rubbing his ears.  
  
He lay down on her chest and nuzzled her neck happily. She sighed and sat up with him in her arms. "Lets go Inu Yasha. I do believe that it is a ways from here and it will take me a while." She led him by his hand towards a village he could smell the breakfast cooking on a fire and he could hear the people of the village moving around busily. He looked to Kagome but she wasn't worried about it so neither was he.  
  
They reached the edge of the village and she stopped. She put her hand on his shoulder to make him stop also. She turned to the left and started to walk off again. He caught up with her slipping his hand into hers again. "Don't worry about that place Inu Yasha. You have no need of it right now."  
  
He could smell flowers. The beautiful kind. He wondered briefly if she would let him pick her some flowers. Once they were in the field she looked around and saw a boulder. She sat upon it and let him roam around as he pleased.  
  
She had been surprised at the state of the village it had looked like it had just been in the process of being erected. Some of the huts were still in their beginning stages which had surprised her but not nearly as much as the fact that she hadn't seen Kaeda's hut. It brought about the thought that Inu Yasha wasn't as young as she thought he was in her time. That thought made her wonder just how far into the past she was. She decided to distract herself by watching Inu Yasha as he chased the tiny animals in the tiny meadow. This would be the field that Kikyou would ask Inu Yasha to become human for her. And the field where they would betray each other. She couldn't help the slight smile that came to her face at how Kikyou had ruined her chance with Inu Yasha then. Even though it was brought about by Naraku. She gasped at the turn her thoughts had taken. Was she really so happy that Kikyou had died? She looked at the small version of Inu Yasha and smiled. Yes she was. No matter how mean that did sound she had to be.  
  
He saw a small delicate blue flower hiding behind several large bright ones. If it hadn't been for that small brown rabbit he had been chasing he wouldn't have seen it at all. He looked at it and struck with an idea he plucked it and ran to Kagome. "Hey what kind of flower is this? It's really pretty. It reminds me of you." He said quickly as he shoved it in her face. She smiled at him and rubbed his ears lightly again. He smiled thankful that he had said something to make her happy once again.  
  
"This flower is a forget-me-not and it is really special. You should only give this type of flower to your true love." She looked at it wistfully lost in thought.  
  
She was surprised when small arms wrapped themselves around her waist and squeezed lightly. "Well then I gave it to the right person. I love you Kagome."  
  
"Inu Yasha I love you too but I don't think you love me in the way this flower implies." At his confused look she pulled him into her lap and tried her best to explain. "Okay your true love would be someone that you would do anything to protect from anything that may harm them. Or you just feel like being around that person whether they feel the same way or not. And you feel like you would want to claim then as yours or make them your mate and you never leave their side."  
  
Inu Yasha nodded. "Oh okay well then you can still keep the flower." He bounded off of her lap and dug around playfully in the dirt waiting for night to come so he could play with her and not have to worry about hurting her. He smiled he was barley seventeen and he could hurt her. "Hey Kagome?"  
  
She looked up. "Yes?" In her hands rested a flower wreath that she had been making. At the front was the flower that he had given her. He smiled as he saw that.  
  
"How old are you?" He scratched his head and ran over to her.  
  
"I'm almost sixteen why?" She frowned slightly. "How old are you?" She took the strands and laid them over his head. The bright colors stood out boldly from their perch on his head. She smiled.  
  
"You're only that old? I'm almost seventeen." He grinned at her picking up a strand of her hair he played with it rolling it around in his fingers.  
  
Her eyes darted to his. "You're seventeen?" He nodded. And settled into her lap to relax. Her jaw dropped. "How can you be seventeen?" She smiled thinking that he was joking with her.  
  
"In case you've forgotten we age slower than humans so I will still look like I'm around ten for quite some time." He paused and looked into her face. "You must've really thought I was young ne?"  
  
She nodded. "Yes I didn't expect you to be this old. I thought that once you reached a certain age that you just automatically started ageing slower. Guess that was a stupid assumption ne?" She rubbed his ears and he leaned into the feeling. She sighed as she felt the usual tug of reality. "I'm going to be going away again soon Inu Yasha. Do you want me to take you back to the cave or do you want to try out your skills and see if you can't find it yourself?"  
  
He grinned at her. "I think I'll use my considerable skill and meet you next time but you will play with me then ne?" She laughed as she leaned over and kissed him on the cheek. "It's a deal then." He said making her laugh again just before she faded out and left him again. He felt his cheek where her warm lips had been pressed only moments before.  
  
Kagome awoke by herself. She sat up and looked around smelling the air forgetting that she had yet to turn into a hanyou. Frustrated she got up and searched around but Inu Yasha was no where near her. 'Oh God did something happen to him while I was gone?' She ran outside trying to order the sun to set so that she could be hanyou and find him easier.  
  
Once outside she bit her lip and looked around. "Inu Yasha?" She called uncertain as to where he could have gotten to. She looked around her but all she could see was the leaf barren trees and dead bushes around her. 'Winter is going to be here soon..' A few late birds called in the air as they started to make their trek across the sky to warmer climates. She wandered a little farther hoping to run into him before long.  
  
A few twigs cracked behind her and she whirled around. "Inu Yasha?." Not receiving an answer as there was no one there she started to worry. "W- who's there?" She backtracked and stood at the mouth of the cave certain that he would come once night fell. After a while everything got deadly silent and she was starting to panic. 'Where is he? Oh God please let him be alright please. please.' She prayed. Night set and she transformed.  
  
With her heightened abilities she tested the air for him. He had gone almost directly after she had gone to sleep. She followed her nose and found him bound tightly to a tree with some special kind of rope. "Oh God!" He was beaten roughly she could see the dried blood on his face and that it had pooled around his feet trailing down the tree at his back. She ran to him and tried to cut him free. The bonds wouldn't give. His eyes cracked open and she came into focus. She caressed his face. "Just hold on a minute I'll get you out of this." He couldn't move the bonds tightened around him when he struggled to tell her not to try.  
  
She ignored him moving around to the back she saw where it had been securely tied. She took her claws and worked the knot until it came loose and Inu Yasha fell forward. Running around to the other side she embraced him. "Inu Yasha are you okay? I am so sorry it took me so long to get here." She ran her hands through his hair looking him over trying to discern how bad a shape he was in. He shrugged her off and stood up. The bruises from the ropes that had been tied around his throat burned.  
  
"You know it wasn't too long ago that I was the one doing this?" He laughed then coughed as the action hurt his throat. 'This is just too funny. Now that she's a hanyou she took my place of taking care of the others as well.' He stayed quiet and waited until she was satisfied. "Lets go back. No more leaving the cave for a while ne?" He helped her to her feet. He swayed as he tried to walk. 'I guess I didn't get all my air back yet.' He thought as he felt blackness at the edge of his vision. He was surprised when Kagome picked him up and walked back towards the cave. "Woman, I can walk just fine on my own thank you very much. Now put me DOWN." She shook her head and ignored him. "Can you hear me? I said put me down."  
  
"I will just not right yet. I don't know what attacked you or how they managed to do it as they did. But until I do I am not letting you out of my sight got it?" She looked down at him and he could see the worry in her eyes before it disappeared. She sighed and looked ahead again.  
  
"You know the male is supposed to take care of the female not the other way around." He grumbled as he crossed his arms across his chest.  
  
"Well nothing about us is normal is it Inu Yasha? But if the male is hurt how can he take care of the female?" She pointed out making him grumble more but for the most part he kept quiet trying to stave off the impending dark. She got to the mouth of the cave and set him on his feet. He didn't stumble on the way back to the bed. He lay down and closed his eyes slightly wary from the days events. He cracked an eye open as he watched her close the entrance with the boulder. She moved back to his side and ran her hand over his face. When she drew her hand back she asked the inevitable question. "So what happened and how did it happen?"  
  
He sighed. His mouth had a slight blood trail running from the side of it and he was trying not to split his lip again as he had while he was talking to Kagome earlier. Her eyes trailed to it and she reached out her hand to brush away the offending sight. He looked at her as she got frustrated from it oozing blood again. She leaned over him and instinctively licked it to stop the flow. He froze and she looked down satisfied that it had stopped. "So how did it happen?" She seemed totally oblivious to what she had just done.  
  
He shook his head to clear it. "Well while you were sleeping I went out to get something for you to eat as I knew you'd be hungry when you woke up. But I was attacked from behind and they said a lot of things I don't remember." He trailed off and looked away. "I don't know much until you came and got me. As you can see they were able to over power me but it still took three of them to my one and I did get to knock at least one of them completely out of life before they took me down."  
  
He was lying about not remembering, and if he looked her in the eyes she would know it too. Those demons had been upset because she had been turned into a demon and they thought that if there was one there were bound to be more. So they had wanted to use her as an example to all the others who had ever contemplated the idea. But he had not told them where she was so they sufficed with torturing him until a few minutes before she had come for him. They had beaten him bloody and hadn't stopped because he wouldn't tell them where she was. If he had to go through it again he still wouldn't tell them. But why had they left him just before Kagome had come?  
  
He was struck with a realization. "Kagome you have to shield the door." He sat up in worry. "You need to barricade it wit one of those ofudas or something." He looked to the boulder at the entrance then to her. When she didn't move he shoved her towards the entrance. "Go woman and fix it." He watched her until she got there.  
  
She sighed and moved towards it. She placed her hands on the boulder about shoulder length apart. She silently thanked Kaeda for showing her this earlier before all this had even happened. Murmuring a spell to ward off evil spirits she looked at him. "Satisfied?" He nodded his head roughly making his hair tangle under his head. Sighing again she went back to him and took out the knots in his hair. "Better?" He nodded again. Kagome looked around her then decided to crawl over him and sit with her back to the wall.  
  
Inu Yasha was half awake and when Kagome straddled him to get to her destination it shocked him. "W-what are you doing K-Kagome?" She looked down at him as she slid her other leg over him and rested against the wall as she had intended. She raised her eyebrows sending the silent message. 'What?' He blushed and looked away. "Nothing."  
  
She looked at him skeptically and he almost laughed. Because of her dual colored eyes it made her look unnerving and freaked him out slightly and he found that highly amusing. 'Yeah now that Kagome's changed I get to play the submissive one and she gets to surprise me at every turn.' He let a grin cross his features briefly. Her eyes closed much to his pleasure. He studied her while her eyes were closed. Her ears were twitching on top of her head, the tips of them had a black fuzz patch. Almost like her hair he mused looking at the sky blue strands of said hair. The black tips brushed the floor with her head bowed. He hadn't noticed before just how long her hair had grown during her time with him. He was certain she was asleep so he sat up slowly lest she wake up from his movements.  
  
One of his hands took a life of its own and stroked her bowed head. Realizing that she wasn't going to be waking up anytime soon he continued on. She stirred slightly and he remembered earlier on in the day or yesterday.He couldn't really remember. She would talk in her sleep. "Kagome. are you asleep yet?"  
  
"No why should I be?" He about jumped out of his skin. 'She had been awake?!' Her head came up. "Why did you stop that felt really good." She moved her head under his hand again waiting for him to continue on scratching.  
  
"Keh." He moved his hand away and laid down, rolling over so she couldn't see his bright red face. "Go to sleep."  
  
"Whatever you say." She lay down beside him wrapping her arms around him. Pressing her front tightly to his back. He blushed and she smiled against his back falling asleep. 'Never thought I'd be this forward.' Her mind commented before she went to sleep. She didn't visit the child Inu Yasha. Of the morning when she awoke she found Inu Yasha's normal face barely inches from hers. Her smile widened when she saw his lips were parted slightly and he was snoring quietly. 'So THIS is why he never really falls asleep at night with us there.' She giggled. His face was so serene and beautiful when he was sleeping. It made her think that maybe he wasn't just part demon that maybe he was part angel too.  
  
His eyes cracked open to find Kagome's human gaze staring back at him. "Why are you so close?" She realized what he meant when she looked down. Their legs were entangled at an odd angle reminding her of some of that clay art displayed in museums. His pelvis was ground up against hers and she could feel their differences in anatomy very well. She blushed and scrambled out of his close proximity. He smiled. 'So while she's human she acts just as she used to while her personality changes slightly when she's a demon.' (A/N: no really? Boy you have to be a genius to figure that one out. Sorry for outburst, on with the fic) He rolled onto his back and stretched. He was surprised when he went to loosen his haori but found instead that shirt that Kagome had given him earlier. "Kagome I think I may want my clothes back now.." Then he remembered. HE had left them on the other side of the well. He groaned.  
  
"What? You're the one who left them you know." She moved over to the boulder but she couldn't push it back. Inu Yasha sat up noticing this. 'I can use this information later.' He stored the fact away and pulled her away by the waist. "Listen we agreed there would be no going outside for a little while, so behave yourself." She groaned and relaxed in his arms. He put her down and she instantly ran to where she knew another exit was. This one wasn't barricaded but it was empty on the other side with the mountain acting like a natural fence against anyone entering the place. She inhaled the fresh air trying to calm down a little not too sure what it was that was stressing her out so much. "You know there's not going to be that much to do if it's just us right?"  
  
'I can think of a million things to do with you Kagome.' He decided to keep this little thought to himself and wisely so. "Well if you get too bored you can always sleep just think of that but until then there are a few things you may want to learn as we're trapped over here-" He cut off not wanting to go any farther hoping she hadn't read too much into his words.  
  
"What do you mean we're trapped?" She asked warily. He cursed inside his head at every deity known to man. She waited silently for his answer.  
  
"I didn't mean it like it sounds Kagome-" She frowned at him knowing he was lying. He sighed. "I meant that we don't have a way out so we're 'trapped'. As we can't leave that means there is no where else to go." He sat down by the little stream on a rock. She looked at him dryly mouthing the word 'yeah'. He frowned. "Do you want to be attacked by those youkai?"  
  
"No I don't want to be attacked Inu Yasha." She said as she sat near him. "So what is it you want to teach me now?" He grinned at her making her slightly nervous.  
  
"How about you learn how to fight for real?" His smile widened as hers shrank. "We can start practicing now while you're human so as to give you a better advantage when you change tonight." Her smile dropped off her face while his looked as if it hurt. He laughed as he jumped off the rock and tackled her.  
  
He had to check himself from playing to roughly. She was human again and he had to remember that. 'But if she pulls another one of those stunts I swear I'm going to lose it.' He said mentally. She had bit his neck as she had tried to roll him over after the initial tackle. He had leapt off of her but had pounced again once she had gotten up putting her back on the ground. She elbowed him with all her might in the stomach knowing that she couldn't hurt him. He pretended to be hurt while he rolled off of her clutching his gut. She grinned and pounced on him throwing punches at his chest and upper arms. He laughed as he tossed her over his head and she landed on her back with a loud thump. Dazed she lay there for a while when he landed on her again and pinned her down. His right hand held both of her arms captive by the wrist. His left was tickling her on her stomach. His hips were on her thighs keeping her still. She wriggled laughing and groaning under him trying to throw him off. "I give! I give!" She yelled when she lay panting too tired to move any more let alone laugh. He smiled down in her face. "That was fun. Get your breath back I want to play again." He looked up into the sky noting that it was mid-afternoon. "You hungry?"  
  
She blushed as her stomach answered him for her. "I haven't eaten since we left my house so um. I kind of am." She laughed tiredly as he pulled her to her feet. He caught her as she swayed slightly. "Man I am beat."  
  
He laughed. "Yep and I was the winner." She playfully hit him in the arm as they wandered through the natural garden. She saw a few apples in some of the trees and pointed. He got her idea and let go of her as he leapt up and grabbed some tossing them down for her. She waited until he was done then she took up two and went to the stream. She rinsed them off then handed him one and bit into the other. He watched as the juice from the apple slid down her chin. Taking one of his claws he caught it and tasted it himself. "You got a good one." He commented as he bit into his. She blushed and looked away. He looked at her and saw that the tips of her ears had turned pink. "What are you thinking about Kagome? Your ears are turning pink."  
  
That only caused them to go darker making him even more curious. When she stammered out a "N-n-nothing." He knew something was up. Smirking he moved closer to her. She turned to face him and fell on her butt when she saw how close he was. "You surprised me." She said not moving from her seat on the ground. He waited for her to say what she had been thinking of but she stayed silent. He could hear her heart thundering away in her chest.  
  
"Hey I still want to know what you were thinking that made your ears do that." He crouched down to her level still crunching on his apple. She waved him off. "I'm eating." She said between bites. He nodded. "So am I but I'm still talking to you aren't I?" She nodded looking away.  
  
He dropped it much to her pleasure and stayed silent. After she finished eating she looked at him. "What's on your mind?" He looked at her. 'Why does she want to know?'  
  
"Why?" He got up and got another apple. Moving over to the stream he did as she had done and rinsed it off. Biting into it he licked the juice that pooled into the hole he had just made.  
  
"Because I just wanted to know." She put her core in the stream and watched as it rolled away in the gentle current. "As you're so quiet all the time I figured there must be something you think a lot about and I just wanted to know what it was."  
  
'Well it's her that I think about most but there is no way I'm telling her that.' He pondered for a moment. "Well I think of lots of things. There's not really any specific thing that I really think about." He lay back in the grass relaxing.  
  
"I would've figured you would think about Kikyou a lot." She shrugged, "But that could be just me." She looked at him for any kind of confirmation and was surprised when she saw his face.  
  
'Who?.Kikyou.. She was the one I had thought was Kagome when I first met her. But now that I know for sure that she's not and I have Kagome. What about her?' He looked at her. "Yeah I think about her sometimes." He took her hand when he saw that the night was coming. He held it and felt her nails elongate until they bit into the palm of his hand. He looked at her hair and watched as the light blue came from the roots of her hair and flew out slowing down and stopping just a few inches from the bottom leaving a black streak. He smiled into her now dual colored eyes. "You know.It's amazing to watch you change."  
  
She blushed. Her tail as usual had to make itself known by brushing against his hands. He released her hands to run his fingers through her tail. "Well tomorrow you get to go through the same thing." She got up and looked at the sky as a bare sliver of the moon rose and tiny spots of white light made themselves known in the sky. She looked down at him when he made no reply. "I will be the one watching you then." She smiled and stood up. Her tail flicked over his body once before she rolled up her pants to step into the biting cold of the stream. She turned and smiled at him.  
  
"Hey Kagome.I want to take you to your time in about three days." He waited for her reaction. 'Usually such a statement would make her jump for joy at getting to go home for a time. Maybe she finally wants to stay here with me.' When she still said nothing he pulled off his pants and went into the water with her. "Kagome.Are you wanting to go home?"  
  
She turned and looked at him. He felt so bad just looking at her. He eyes looked so sad. "Do you think they'll take this well?" She gestured to her body. He went to her and on impulse hugged her to him. Her arms wrapped around his waist and she leaned against him. "I know they're my family but.." Her hands fisted in his shirt. "I just don't want them to be mad or. or to look at me differently."  
  
He stroked her back. "I know. And I don't think that they would do that to you so calm down. They're your family and they should love you regardless." She had picked up on the word 'should' and frowned. 'Was there a chance that they really wouldn't accept her as she was?'  
  
Her answer was muffled against his shirt but he caught the gist of it. "What do you think of how I look?" He was suddenly glad she couldn't see his face because of the shock that question had produced. When he didn't answer after a while she sighed. "I should've known." She said quietly.  
  
He sighed and she stiffened against him. "I think you look pretty any way you are." She relaxed against him. 'Well at least I said something right.' "Come on you promised me you'd give me a good fight once you changed." He grinned down at her.  
  
She smiled back up at him pulling out of his arms. She went to the bank and grabbed up his pants. "You might want these." She grinned and wadded them up tossing them to him. He caught them and moved up on the bank pulling them on. They clung to his ankles and anywhere else he was wet. He pulled them up to his knees so that the uncomfortable feeling wouldn't get to him.  
  
He smiled and ran at her. But with her now as close to a good opponent as he could get she was able to move fast enough that he missed her. She laughed at him as she kept herself just out of his reach jumping form tree to tree. His hands tried to swipe at her but were always just short of their mark. He got frustrated at not being able to catch her so he changed his tactic. He stopped and waited for her to come to him. "Hey I thought you wanted to play." She taunted.  
  
Edging as close as she dared to him she bit her lip and carefully gauged how much farther she could go and still be able to move fast enough to escape him. 'Well he's never really going to hurt me and besides this game is just for fun.' She reasoned. As quietly as she could muster she got up behind him. His ears twitched on his head and she knew he knew that she was there. Instead of backing down she ran at him but he turned and caught her just as she collided. Her force knocked them both into the stream.  
  
He laughed as he sat up in the cold water. "How many times are you going to soak us like this?" He got up and shook off as much water as he could. She got up and wrung out her tail. It was soaked. She climbed out of the stream dripping wet.  
  
"As many times as I want to. Besides you needed a bath after all you still smell like blood." She answered as she took off her shirt wringing it out. He watched until she glared at him. "Do you mind?" He turned away trying to hide the blush that had crept across his cheeks.  
  
"What? Finally going modest now are we?" He said gruffly. Rolling his shoulders and went back inside the cave. She stayed out a while longer looking into the sky. She wrapped her arms around her knees as she sat under the trees in the small grove. She looked at the hole in the mountainous sides that surrounded the glade she was in. It led to Inu Yasha and her new 'home' with him she mused. Looking up into the sky she thought of all the other people that must be looking up at the same sky as she was. Maybe not in this time period but all throughout any time. There must have been millions of others and a handful of those would be thinking along the same lines as her. It was amazing. She heard the leaves crunch and rustle under heavy footsteps. The blanket from inside the cave was draped over her shoulders. She rubbed her face. "Thank you Inu Yasha."  
  
He sat beside her. "What were you thinking about?" When she only looked at him he elaborated. "You just looked kind of sad or just really.. well different than your normal expression. And it looked like you were interested in whatever it was that you were thinking." He trailed off.  
  
"I was thinking.that maybe.a lot of other people are out there looking at the same sky I am. Maybe not at the same time but in the future, in the past and now. That would really amount to a lot of people.But the sky never changes. If we were to go to my time right now. We could look into the sky and see the very same stars. And every once in a while there are going to be other people who look up into the sky and realize that too." She leaned back against the tree. "As if you can't tell I'm bored." Her customary smile came to her face as she closed her eyes trying to relax.  
  
"Kagome?" She looked at him and waited. "How is it that you can smile so much? I mean if I were in your place I wouldn't be too happy." He paused waiting for her to answer but she was quiet knowing that there was more. "If I had to change like you did and I was so used to something like that. I don't think I'd be too happy."  
  
She leaned against him. "I'm fine Inu Yasha. I don't mind being like this.."  
  
"Why?" He was puzzled any human in their right mind would be looking for every and any way possible to be put back to the way they were. 'I know that I wasn't too happy that Kikyou wanted me to change for her. I know that I was disappointed that she couldn't love me as I was but why doesn't Kagome look like she's thinking the same things I had?'  
  
She frowned and looked away from him. "Well.it's just that.I like being this way. And I don't care much for anyone else's opinion besides my own. But the fact that.you actually.. you don't look at me like I'm. never mind..." She got up and walked back to the cave. Curling up in their sleeping area she faced the wall. Inu Yasha walked in a few minutes later. 'Well at least she told me part of it while she was awake and knew what she was saying.' He thought. He looked at her small form on the floor curled in on itself. 'She obviously said more than she intended.' He hunched down beside her. "Are you tired Kagome?" 'Did I always act so mean to her? Make her feel so worthless?' He frowned as he rethought of all the mean things he had ever done to her and felt bad.  
  
She nodded. He sighed and touched her face. He was going to have to do something to get her to cheer up as he was certain that her current mood was because of him. She turned to him. "Will you do something with me?"  
  
She nodded slowly and sat up. "What is it Inu Yasha?" He pulled her to her feet.  
  
"Dance with me." She smiled at him. "What? I've never done it before." She shook her head and leaned against his chest swaying slightly. He placed his hands on her hips not too sure what he was supposed to do. When she pulled him tighter to her he knew he had done the right thing. He followed her slight movements and when she started to move her feet in different patterns he followed to the best of his ability. She laughed when he stepped on her feet for the tenth time that night.  
  
When he got the hang of it they messed around trying out tons of things that Kagome had seen in her time on those movie things. He rather liked when she had him dip her. She had laughed and he could feel it reverberate through her chest into his.  
  
Once he was certain she had forgotten about telling him he set her in the bed and curled around her. "Go to sleep we've been awake for quite a while. And I imagine that you will be extremely tired what with you traveling through time so much." She turned in his arms and tucked her head under his chin. "Tomorrow we'll do something different ne?" She nodded before she dropped off into a deep slumber.  
  
She didn't wake up until the sun was starting to set. She looked at the boy in front of her. "Inu Yasha wake up." She nudged his chin with the top of her head. His eyes opened slowly and his mouth yawned opening widely, showing her that his fangs were already starting to dull. She smiled when she saw his tongue loll like a dogs would. "What?" His voice was thick with sleep.  
  
"Nothing." She detangled herself form him and peered into his face. His eyes were starting to darken around the edges, creeping in on his natural amber. She pulled him to his feet laughing when he started yelling at her leave him alone. She pulled him outside into the ever dimming light of the sun. She watched as his hair started to turn from a silvery white to pitch black. His ears started their slow descent to the sides of his head losing the bit of fur and getting more of a human curve to them. She lightly fingered the small point that was left of his ears until it too disappeared. She looked into his now brown eyes. She could see herself in them and they drew her in just as much as his amber ones did. "Wow. I think I know what you mean by liking watching someone change like that." She peered into his face. He leaned back not too comfortable with her being so close to him but not wanting her to leave completely.  
  
"You're a little close don't you think?" She blushed and apologized. 'Well she does look different with these human eyes. But what is it that makes her appear so?' He thought for a moment studying her face before him as she still hadn't turned away. "You know you look very different with these human eyes of mine." 'She looks like a goddess or something so far above me. Like maybe I'm a peasant looking on a queen.'  
  
She looked down not sure what he meant by 'different'. "Oh." She said stupidly.  
  
"No I don't mean different like bad. I mean I can't see you as well and it. just makes you look different to me but you're still just as pretty or even more so now." He about bit off his tongue. 'Well that was about the understatement of the century. She's a lot more than pretty.' He got up uncomfortable with his thoughts so he decided to leave them.  
  
"Come on I'm tired of being in here and I wanted you to see the ocean and now that you're human is the best time to do it." She grabbed his hand and before he could say anything edgewise she was out of the cave and running through the woods with him on her back. He sighed. 'Will she ever just let me walk on my own? I swear I don't see how she could like this.' He smirked as she landed with a flourish at the well. "Lets go."  
  
"Wait Kagome. What are you going to do about your.. um ears?" She remembered and put him down. She fingered them thinking of the different possibilities.  
  
"Well I can always hide them somehow but I don't intend on going near other people when I look like this so I won't be worrying too much about it. And after all this is night so. Wait I don't have to worry about that." Her face brightened.  
  
He gave her a wry glance. "If anyone notices that tail I'm sure you'll be able to just explain it away too. " she smiled and wrapped her tail around her neck. "Do you like my scarf?"  
  
"Well what if those animal rights people you talk about sometimes throw red paint on it?" He countered thinking he had caught her.  
  
"I will kill them. There is no way that they will do that to MY tail." She punctuated with a light growl. "And as for my ears I just won't move them but if I do then I can always say that I got them specially made." She moved her hair so that it covered where her ears were supposed to be. "There now I can always say that it's just a pair of fake ears. Are you happy?" She didn't give him time to answer. Grabbing him she jumped into the well. The familiar weightless feeling assaulted them both. After they touched ground she could hear her grandfather outside talking with some of the neighbors. Her mother and Sota were probably still at that school field trip. She leapt out of the well and moved stealthily along the edge of the shrine. Inu Yasha followed closely behind her as quietly as he could.  
  
Once she was certain that they were beyond her grandpa's hearing she took his hand and walked with him to the edge of the city. It didn't take so long as they already lived on the outskirts anyway. She looked up to the signs even though she knew where she was going. With her enhanced senses she was able to already smell the salt of the sea and she knew that it wouldn't be too long before he would be able to smell it too.  
  
His nose habitually wiggled as he tried to smell the air. "Stupid human nose.." He grumbled. His hand flexed in hers asking for release so she let go. He followed her the sand sticking to his bare feet. He rather liked the foreign feel until life had to play its little pranks on him as usual.  
  
He cursed when he stepped on a broken shell. She turned around and could smell the blood leaking out of his foot. "Here." She sat him down and looked at it. She looked into his eyes. "It may hurt a bit but I have to get this shell out of your foot." He nodded and bit his lip. She took her claws and carefully pulled out the piece that was embedded deeply inside the cut. "Here it is." She said holding up her bloody prize. He sighed in relief. "But I'm afraid you can't walk on it until we get you to the water as the sand might get into it and make it fester and get really gross." He sighed resigning himself to taking her help yet again. She put an arm under his shoulder and helped him hobble up the sand dunes to the ocean. As she got close to the waters edge she pulled off her pants and her upper shirt. He sat down keeping his leg off the sand as she had said and did the same.  
  
She smiled at him and pulled him to his feet. Lifting him up she tossed him in the waves. He gasped as the cold water engulfed his body. He felt her small hands grasp his and pull him up to the surface. He took in a deep breath once his face broke through. The waves crashed against the rocks closer to shore. He looked to where he had landed and where he was now. "How did you swim out here so fast. You threw me so far. And by the way I really don't like being treated like a sack of rice for your own pleasure." He looked at her as her hands moved from his arms to his waist and pulled him closer to her. He could feel her body heat radiating off of her in waves. He shivered hoping that she would think it was the water getting to him.  
  
"Are you cold?" She pulled him tighter. He could feel her legs moving gracefully under the waves as she pulled them farther out to sea. "You know when I was younger.I used to have a fear of what I couldn't see under the water. I used to watch all these scary movies and they gave me all sorts of ideas. Like the movie Jaws. I never used to like to swim in the ocean or any other body of water where other things lived."  
  
He looked out farther. He opened his mouth to ask what exactly was 'Jaws' when something caught his attention. There were sleek gray bodies moving through the water. "Kagome what are those?" She turned to look at them as they approached.  
  
"They're dolphins. They're supposed to be a very smart animal. Maybe if we stay still they'll play a little bit closer to us." She kept moving her legs under water to keep them from going under and he started to wonder where she was getting all this energy to be able to keep them afloat for this long. "sometimes they do tricks in the water like jumping up and splashing its really cute to watch."  
  
"Kagome aren't you going to get tired soon? Why don't we go over to those rocks on that jetty?" She looked to where he was pointing.  
  
"I can't. If we go over there. There are crabs in those rocks and they have extremely strong pincers and they could cut off one of your toes and that would really hurt. And there are jelly fish and everything else out here so lets just stay. I'm not too tired.not at all." She turned him to where his back was pressed to her chest and he could see the dolphins better. And just as she had said there were a few that were jumping the waves. He watched as their graceful bodies slid through the water as if it were air. "They're beautiful aren't they?"  
  
He could feel the salt of the ocean in his cut and it stung but he kept quiet so that the dolphins wouldn't notice them and think of them as a threat and leave. "Yes they are.Are there going to be whales?" He looked out to the sea unable to see where it ended.  
  
"I don't know. They generally don't come out that often but we may get lucky. I wasn't expecting the dolphins to be out I was thinking that the seals would be and they come out every night so I want you to see those before we go back." She rested her forehead on the side of his neck. He gave into temptation and pressed his lips to her hair. She looked up at him surprise written all over her face. She smiled gently at him and returned the gesture. He pressed his lips tighter against hers but she broke off before he could deepen the kiss.  
  
He rested his forehead against hers once they broke apart. "I guess you get to be my first in everything don't you Inu Yasha?" She smiled into his eyes. Before he could answer she looked into the sky. "We might want to move to shore as it's going to be light soon. And I'm not so sure that I'll be able to support us both with me just being human. Unless you can swim against the current?"  
  
He shook his head. "I don't know how to swim never tried." She smiled at him. "Will you take me to the ocean in our time to teach me?" A rough barking noise was heard on the rocks. He looked as pillow-like bodies moved sluggishly and clumsily on the land. He could see them rolling off into the water and that's where their clumsiness as they turned out to be as graceful as the dolphins.  
  
"Sure. It should be fun.. but what if there are other demons in the water?.Maybe we should practice at night when all decent people are asleep." She suggested. He nodded ascent. Looking to shore she balanced him on her stomach with one arm around his waist as she pulled them to shore using the current to help her get back.  
  
Soon they were able to stand up in the shallow water, he watched as the sun rose and her ears moved down on her head to their natural position. Her hair seemed to absorb the light blue color and her eyes swirled in colors until it went back to normal. He could feel his strength returning to him and her eyes stayed on him until he was done. They watched as the sun put gorgeous streaks of color across the ocean's surface. He looked at her in her human form once again. The breeze coming in off the ocean was stirring her hair and her cheeks were flushed from the cold. "I can't believe we did that with it being almost winter." He commented as he pulled on his clothes. Then he quickly jerked her onto his back going back towards the shrine and home.  
  
Once they were inside the yard he saw her grandfather sweeping the steps. "Oi not get much sleep last night?" He called out giving the man a shock. He smirked when he saw the old man's eyes look like they were going to pop out of his head.  
  
"Kagome! How is it that I didn't see you come out of the shrine my girl?" He moved over to them and glared at Inu Yasha. Inu Yasha let her down and she slid down his back slowly as if she really didn't want to. Then he remembered that she had left her clothes at the beach. 'No wonder she didn't want to get down.' Immediately he stepped up to the grandpa and looked down at him. "Hey why don't we see why your ofudas don't work." Kagome took the hint and ran inside to get dressed. He placed on of his clawed hands on the old man's shoulder and was peered at with disdain.  
  
"What do you mean my ofudas don't work? I'll show you that they do!" The old man exclaimed. He ran back to his little shrine and dug out a box full of them. He threw a few of them at Inu Yasha and they hit him but did nothing. He remembered being hit with the power in Miroku's ofudas. Boy was that something that he never wanted to feel again.  
  
"Here if you let me help maybe they will ne?" he moved closer to the old man and took one in his hands. "I will take this to Kaeda or Miroku and see if they can't tell me anything okay?" The old man glared at him. He picked up one of the scrolls and held it between his claws studying it carefully.  
  
"What did you do to my granddaughter? After all she is only sixteen and I'm certain that because you're a demon you are a lot older than you look." He hissed as he gave Inu Yasha the stink eye. "She came back here in her underclothes. If I find out you took advantage of our Kagome you're in trouble."  
  
Kagome came out of the house just then and caught the end of his sentence. "Jii-chan do you really have to ask? He didn't do anything we just went for a swim in the ocean. He's never been and I wanted him to see the animals and stuff out there. I didn't have my swimsuit with me and I didn't want to ruin my clothes by staining them with salt water. Besides don't you trust me enough to know that I'm not ready for something like that? I'm not that stupid."  
  
Jii-chan still didn't look convinced so she went for her trump card. "Besides if you really think he did something you can take me to the doctors just to make sure." She didn't have to say any more. With Jii-chan being so old he wasn't comfortable with talking about going to the doctors to get 'checked out' for stuff like that.  
  
He muttered something inaudible under his breath but Inu Yasha caught it and Kagome already knew what it was. "Fine I believe you Kagome." He looked up at Inu Yasha then. "Are you going to let her go to school? Or was this just a check in?" The stink eye was still there just not as fierce.  
  
"It was just a check in Jii-chan. We will be back more often though so no worries ne?" He hugged his granddaughter and she kissed him on the cheek. "Take care of yourself Jii-chan and try to keep the diseases at a minimum thanks. I'll see you all in a little while okay?" She smiled as he watched her jump into the well.  
  
She sighed when they got to the other side. "That was shocking. I can't believe I forgot something like that." She blushed furiously. "I mean for real. It was my clothes! You'd think I could remember something like that."  
  
He laughed at her. "So what 'doctor' is this that it upset your Jii-chan so much?"  
  
She grinned at him. "In my time it's a doctor who looks at you down there." She pointed to the referred area. "And on girls he can tell if they're still virgins or not. Jii-chan isn't exactly too keen on going to one of those and neither am I."  
  
"There's a job in your time to look at naked girls? And in their most private places?" He was shocked. She laughed at his facial expression.  
  
"There are plenty of them. I guess it's a good thing that Miroku isn't from my time ne? He would scare all those poor girls silly." She sighed and looked towards Kaeda's. "I think I want my CD player."  
  
"You mean that noisy thing that Shippo sang to?" She nodded. He groaned. "Why do you want that noisy thing though?" He whined not wanting to go to the village at all.  
  
She took his arm. "I'm going with you and when you get my pack I'm going to see how Sango and Miroku and Shippo are doing. I was really worried about them." He nodded and reluctantly took her to the village.  
  
Once they got there Shippo launched himself at Kagome as was his custom. "Kagome! It's been so long since I've seen you. I'm missed you." She laughed as she stroked the kit's head. He looked into her eyes. "I never want you to leave me like that again."  
  
She smiled down at him. "Now Shippo you know that I don't mean to." She heard Sango and Miroku call her name from a little way away. She glanced up. "Hey guys I'm over here." She waved her free arm. "Shippo with Inu Yasha being the way he is I'm not too sure that he would want you along. But I promise that I will come and get you tomorrow if you can behave yourself ne?"  
  
He nodded vigorously. There was no way he was going to get to miss out on spending time with Kagome. He sat on her shoulder as Sango crushed Kagome in a gigantic hug. "Kagome oh we missed you." Kagome smiled but before she could say anything the monk had her in an equally crushing hug. "Inu Yasha needs to let you breathe for a while Kagome."  
  
Said hanyou cleared his throat behind the monk and picked him off of Kagome. "Why hello Miroku I'm glad to see that you found Kagome now if you don't mind." He put him down a fair distance away from Kagome. "So Sango I know you went to go find out some information on Kagome's condition so how did it go?"  
  
Sango glared at him. "I don't think I was wanting to tell you but you already know all of what I'm going to say." Kagome looked quizzically at them all wondering what had been going on lately.  
  
"I do?" He looked puzzled and it made Sango wonder if he had been asleep when Kikyou had found out the information from him. 'Maybe that's why she was able to remember such trivial details.'  
  
"Yes you do as you're the only one who knows anything about it. Kagome isn't going to live a normal life. She will live longer than a normal human but its not for sure if she will live as long as a hanyou as she still turns human during the mornings. She won't age that quickly thanks to her transformation. And she won't be able to be transformed back into a human thanks to the Shikon jewel." She looked at Kagome. "Because of the way the death wish was stated you had to want to change too Kagome. And because you carry the power of the sacred jewel your magic combined with his to create the spot you're in now." She tapped her lips as she looked at Inu Yasha. "There's one other thing. We can find out more information but we have to go to your hometown which was burned down years ago and hope that it will give us more answers. But as we have not even the slightest clue as to where you grew up we have no idea of where to start."  
  
Inu Yasha glared at her. "You went to Kikyou." It was a statement not a question but Sango felt the need to nod affirming what he had said. "Why did you go to her?" His voice was deathly cold.  
  
"I will never go near that horrible nasty old wretch again and I hope she rots in hell with all the other demons we've sent ahead of her." Sango spat vehemently.  
  
Miroku laid a comforting hand on her shoulder to get her to calm down. "That isn't too nice to say as she did clear up a few things for us Sango. But granted she wasn't exactly the nicest person you could meet and I second what she just said.The point is Inu Yasha that we need you to tell us where you grew up so that we may go to find out more about Kagome's condition."  
  
Inu Yasha looked away. "No."  
  
"What?" Miroku everyone bore the same shocked faces. Inu Yasha repeated himself. "But why? Don't you want to get Kagome to be able to be one way all the time?"  
  
"Of course I do. But it's up to her for that not me. The reason I won't tell you where I grew up however is because you would die. Sesshomaru would kill you for trespassing as he inherited the land and I did not. But that really doesn't help you does it? Because everyone knows that the castle I grew up in is a secret place not even many demons know the location and I know for a fact that before I was sealed away by Kikyou that he had been hunting down the ones who did know. So I can very well say that you have a snowball's chance in hell of finding that place." He put his arm around Kagome's shoulder. "I found your CD player lets go."  
  
Shippo tugged his hand off of Kagome's shoulder. "I don't want her to go. Kagome stay here we all want you here." She gently set Shippo on Sango's shoulder. He cried.  
  
"Shippo what did I say?" His tears dried up. "That's much better. Now behave yourself and try to help Sango and Miroku. They may need your help." With that she turned with Inu Yasha and they walked off into the forest.  
  
"Just what was it that you said to the kit Kagome?" She smiled and held onto his arm successfully distracting him.  
  
Miroku looked to Sango as they watched them go. "I don't know about you but I want to find that place. Did you see how Kagome looked at Inu Yasha when she heard that there might be a way to make her hanyou all the time? I think she may want it." He took Shippo. "Hey you were on her shoulder you could hear her heartbeat what did it say?"  
  
"She was excited by the idea but I don't think we should meddle in this. Inu Yasha didn't seem to keen on the idea." Shippo said as he looked at Sango. "You noticed it too I know you did."  
  
"Yes I noticed. But. Inu Yasha doesn't seem to like the idea of her changing especially if he thinks she's doing it for him." Sango said.  
  
"Which she essentially is. But that's okay I suppose. because if she does he will never leave her alone. Just look at him now. I bet she had done something really nice for him or she had to pull teeth to get him to come down here with her. As he seemed not to like the idea last time of her going anywhere without him unless he told her to. And even when he told her to he had ulterior motives on why she should go." Shippo and Sango nodded.  
  
"Well where should we go to find out where he grew up? Kagome looked like she might know but there is no way that we'd be able to ask her. Even so she probably wouldn't say anything as she wouldn't like to upset him. No matter what she really wouldn't tell I bet. So I guess that leaves us to find Jaken or Sesshomaru. But do you think that we can?" Miroku said.  
  
A few days journey away from the small group said demons were watching Rin. The spunky little girl was running through a group of birds scattering them to the winds. She giggled and laughed with delight as they called to each other in the air. Sesshomaru contemplated on how he had gotten stuck with an annoying servant who was about as dense as a rock and an overtly happy girl for the millionth time in the day.  
  
He looked down at the toad demon by his feet when he heard a less than uplifting comment about the human girl. "Be careful Jaken because to me you are both a weakling and annoying." That shut the toad up as the toad knew that if he uttered another word his life would be on the line.  
  
Sesshomaru finally got fed up with the girl's antics and called to her. "Rin come we are leaving." The demon lord didn't wait on her but moved on.  
  
Rin watched as Sesshomaru-sama moved deeper into the forest. She giggled to herself as she sent one last bird flying before she ran after him. "Wait up Fluffy-sama!" That name caused the poor demon lord to shudder. Oh how he loathed that name she had given him. He slowed his pace none the less pausing as the human child caught up to him. He sneezed. "Oh!" Rin said. "Someone's thinking about you Fluffy-sama." She grinned at him. He regarded her out of his cold eyes and wasn't surprised when she took hold of his limp sleeve in her tiny little hands.  
  
"No one is thinking of me Rin." He corrected her.  
  
"Oh yes they are. There are some people that have to know about Sesshomaru- sama. Surely he doesn't kill every one he meets does he?" She asked Jaken as she knew that the demon lord would never answer her himself.  
  
The toad glared at the miserable little human. "Yes he does you little brat and he should've done the same to you too." That earned him a glare from Sesshomaru which caused him to shut up rather quickly. "But I guess you're lucky." He mumbled.  
  
Rin smiled at him knowing exactly why he had to backtrack as he did. She shone her smile at Sesshomaru-sama. As he didn't appear to be in the best of moods she left off her nickname for him but she still asked as she always did. "Where are you taking us Sesshomaru-sama?"  
  
"Be quiet Rin. There is no need for you to know where we are going just that we are." He answered curtly. Nonplussed Rin still smiled and skipped ahead of him on the trail giggling slightly to herself. Sesshomaru regarded her from his cold eyes as she still bounced around in front of him. He kept it to himself but lately he had been feeling a slight warmth when he looked at her and now was no different. It made him uneasy and snappy so he was glad that neither of his companions said a word to him. Every so often he would catch comments about stupid humans and what-not from Jaken but if he were to keep it up any longer Sesshomaru was just going to have to beat him bloody. "One more comment, Jaken, just one more and I will kill you. I am not up to listening to your fits right now and as you cannot change the fact that Rin is traveling with us I suggest that you shut up before I am forced to make you."  
  
The toad remembered his place and stared sullenly at the object of his hate. 'How in the world could a human- and a mere child at that- worm its disgusting little way into Lord Sesshomaru's affections?' As he had more self-preservation instincts than to voice his discomfort through a growl or any other natural demon instinct. He had to suffer through his discomfort.  
  
That night as was the usual custom they slept outside. Rin watched Sesshomaru through half lidded eyes. She had been spent from the morning of watching Fluffy-sama attack the humans who didn't give what he wanted which ultimately meant their deaths. She knew he was watching her to see a reaction to maybe be able to have an excuse to send her away. So instead of giving into the horror of what had occurred she looked down at her own species and made a face at them. "Eww they sure do bleed a lot Fluffy- sama." That response seemed to please him as he nodded and moved on in search of whatever it was that he had wanted.  
  
Yawning as weariness took over her small frame she saw that her Fluffy-sama was laying on his back with his tail curled over his lap as a blanket. She shivered on the cold ground then bit her lip looking from him to the ground she was laying on. Finally coming to a decision in the internal war in her head she walked silently over to Sesshomaru. When he didn't act as though he knew she was there she crawled onto his chest to sleep under his tail with him.  
  
Sesshomaru could hear the girl stir beside him even though she was supposed to be sleeping. He kept an ear on her and was mildly surprised when he heard her tip toe over to him and crawl under his tail with him. His eyes shot open as he felt her snuggle down on his chest keeping one of her hands on the exposed skin at his neck. He pretended not to notice and fell asleep that way.  
  
Inu Yasha sat up in the night looking down on Kagome. Her face was flushed slightly as she slept. Tonight he was certain that she was asleep. "Kagome?"  
  
Her ears swiveled in his direction. "Hmmm?" she said sleepily as she snuggled into his side.  
  
"Are you awake?" He felt her nose brush his side in negation. "Do you want to be hanyou all the time?" He rolled her onto her back so he could see her chest rise and fall with each of her breaths. She didn't answer him so he figured that she still wasn't sure. "What are you dreaming about?"  
  
"The ocean. and when you. kissed me." Came her sleepy reply as she sighed. He grinned. "Why are you dreaming about that?"  
  
"Mmmm it felt good." He smiled at that. "Would you like me to do it again?" He heard her show signs of waking up and laid down to keep her from noticing.  
  
"Inu?. Are you awake?" She yawned. He looked at her and feigned that she had just woken him up. "Sorry. I thought you were saying something." She started to drift off again. He decided that he may as well try as she had liked it the first time.  
  
He pressed his lips to hers. Her eyes opened up. Realizing what he was doing, she smiled before they slid shut again. He experimentally licked her lips to ask entrance. Her lips parted under his letting his tongue roam inside. When he ventured too far into her mouth her fangs nipped lightly. Enjoying the sensation that traveled his body when she did that he tried it again. He moaned into her mouth as he felt the desire rock his body with that simple act.  
  
Wanting her to feel the same things he was he drew her tongue into his mouth and nipped. She purred slightly enjoying the feel just as much as he did. He drew away from the kiss to plant small ones along her jaw and down the column of her throat sliding his hands up and down her arms. "You awake now?" He asked his voice slow and rough as his tongue was slightly swollen from their play.  
  
She sighed and rolled over. "You wanted me awake is all?" She looked at him through half-lidded eyes. She was the most beautiful thing he had ever seen he decided. He nodded so she got up and wandered around. "What did you want me awake for?" He just grinned at her.  
  
She rolled her eyes. Then she heard scrapping on the other side of the boulder and muffled voices. Inu Yasha too distracted by her didn't hear it. He moved to her pushing his face in the crook of her neck purring lightly. "Shhh-" She ran her hands quickly through his hair. "I think someone's on the other side of the boulder trying to get in." She whispered as she tried to frown down at him.  
  
'How in the world can she be thinking after that?' His mind just couldn't comprehend that she wasn't as muddled as he was. "What?" He wanted to growl at the groggy way his voice sounded.  
  
"Someone or.." She sniffed the air. There was a slight air current coming from under the boulder where they had been digging for a while. "There are about three or four of them and some of them smell like a wet dog." Her nose wrinkled.  
  
"They must be from Kouga's tribe. That wimpy wolf always smells like wet dog no matter how much he yells about me reeking of dog-"He was cut off by Kagome's hand over his mouth.  
  
"You don't smell like a dog. You smell rather nice to me if that's any consolation. But let's take care of whomever's on the other side and then we might just continue what you started." With that she pressed a chaste kiss to the corner of his mouth. He grinned. 'So she did like it.' He couldn't help the way his considerable ego swelled at her actions and his thoughts.  
  
He then concentrated and heard the demons on the other side. 'Those aren't the same ones who wailed on me.But they definitely know them. Oh God Kagome's going to be in danger.' That thought was cut off when she started towards the boulder looking for all the world like she was going to skin them alive.  
  
"Smells like that Inu Yasha was lying. He does have a claim on that disgusting human." "Smells like he's going to mate her in there." There was some snickering on the other side. He couldn't catch what was said so he looked at Kagome's face. He listened intently while he watched her. Suddenly Kagome got extremely upset. She took her fist and drew back. Before Inu Yasha could stop her she had already knocked the boulder back crushing at least two of the four youkai that had been waiting on them. "What in the world do you think you're doing? This is not your home and I expect you to act as such." Kagome fumed.  
  
Inu Yasha quirked an eyebrow at her as she couldn't see him. 'Her home?' That was the last thought he got before they were both fighting off the invading youkai. The two bigger ones were working on keeping him away from Kagome as the faster and smaller ones went for her. They were mildly surprised that she knew some of the demon attacks that she used and she even surprised him when she started fusing in her miko powers to help them both.  
  
Kagome looked at the tiny blue blurs that she was fighting off. Every so often she would glimpse their faces but they were too fast for her to catch much besides the fact that their stripes were very different from the other youkai she had seen. Theirs were multicolored and in twisty waves along their cheeks. One landed a punch to her mid-section. Not about to stand for it she felt a power pulsate in her hands like the time she had first fell down the well and disintegrated that centipede youkai's arm. Focusing on that power she brought out her claws and sliced down on one. It caught one of them across the shoulder and tore his entire chest open. She watched as blood bubbled out of his mouth and he drowned on his own thick fluids. His eyes were fire-engine red and had black slits in them. His stripes were circled counter-clockwise on his cheeks. His small body was convulsing with pain.  
  
"You bitch! What did you do to Suigi?" The darker blue demon shouted at her. She paused shaking her hand free of the blood staining it. His face was contorted into a mask of rage as he leapt at her. Fortunately she knew that youkai didn't think half so clearly when they were in a rage but they hit a whole heck of a lot harder. He didn't manage to hit her the first few punches he threw and she was able to land a kick to his mid-section that sent him flying into a wall. She winced at the sickening snapping and cracking noises that ensued form her attack. The boy got up completely unfazed and launched himself at her again.  
  
She nimbly avoided his claws as they swiped at her and instead ended up ramming into one of Inu Yasha's opponents. He twisted quickly as his burly arms came crushing around her ribs holding her in place as the small one ran at her again this time succeeding in slicing her stomach open. She watched dimly aware that the ground was coming to meet her face. She felt the demons kick her a few times taking advantage of the fact that Inu Yasha was distracted by his other fight and that she didn't call out to him.  
  
She was dimly aware of Inu Yasha screaming at her to get up before she could hear nothing more. A warm sticky fluid pillowed itself under her body. She felt her body roll over and Inu Yasha's face was hovering over hers. Something warm hit her face and slid down her cheek. Trying to get him to calm down and not worry she tried to lift her hand. She wanted to say something to him anything to make him stop looking so worriedly at her. She saw one of the demons that he had just taken down rise up and bash him over the head with something making him fall over her unconscious.  
  
Inu Yasha watched Kagome's face as she seemed to register that she was falling and that she had been hit. It looked surprised like she didn't feel what had happened to her. "Kagome! Get up you have to! You have to be alright!" He looked to the big one that had held her still and swinging the tetsuiga He lobbed off the demon's head. It lolled around on the floor while the smaller one ran at Inu Yasha. He took his fist and slammed it into the young one's face knocking him against a wall. Inu Yasha immediately rushed to Kagome's side. He rolled her over trying to keep the tears that wanted to fall in check. He failed in that area and watched as his tears left a clear trail down her cheeks amongst the blood that had collected there. Her mouth worked and she tried to raise her hand but it fell back to the ground limply. He saw a horror in her eyes and made to turn around to find what it was when everything went dark.  
  
Akiko's blonde hair whipped in the night wind his bangs catching in the corner of his mouth. His half-sister Kaori had felt that someone had needed their help and that they could use their help too. His green eyes looked at the blood smeared entrance to the cave. He could feel two youkai inside both of them half-demons. Was one of them the ones that Kaori had wanted? He stepped inside and had to cover his nose at the sickening smell of blood and the dead. He looked in at the scene. He could see a bloodied man laying over top of a battle wounded woman. He felt Kaori in his head saying that the woman was the one they needed and that he needed to help her so that she wouldn't die in the morning.  
  
He looked at the man a little closer. He was an inu youkai with white hair which was currently stained with blood as was everything else here. He could hear Kaori in his head. 'Akiko! Did I say to heal the boy? No I didn't. Just do like I asked and heal the girl first but be careful. If you let her wake up she will hurt you unintentionally so let her stay knocked out. Once you heal her if you feel the need to you may help the hanyou boy just so long as he doesn't wake up either.' He nodded even though he knew she couldn't see him.  
  
He knelt near their bodies and couldn't help but think of the romantic stories that his mother used to tell him of two star-crossed lovers doomed to die. 'Well' He thought 'This pair isn't going to end up like that sad story mother used to tell me. No sir, not if I have anything to do about it. These two will not die like this.'  
  
'Akiko will you stop thinking like a hopeless romantic and get down to business?' Kaori's agitated voice sounded in his head. He sighed and reached for the girl. A low menacing growl came from the boy. 'What would you expect dummy? He loves her after all and any male to come around her like this is perceived as a threat.' He nodded again but this time took a hold of the boy's strange robes and rolled him off of the girl. The boy's hands unconsciously reached out for the girl. 'Oh that is so sweet. And by the way his name is Inu Yasha and hers is Kagome just so you stop calling them boy and girl because they are more than that and you know it Akiko.'  
  
He grumbled but did as he was told. He placed his hands on Kagome's chest eliciting a growl from both of the hanyous. He ignored them and focused. He felt his strength start to wan as her wound closed up and sealed itself. He sat back and rubbed his hands off on his jeans. He felt a sickness rise from his stomach so he ran to the corner to be violently ill. He wiped his mouth off with the back of his hand and saw the blood he had left. He sighed. 'That is the only part I hate about healing.' He thought. He could feel Kaori's arms wrap around his shoulders lending him a little of her strength.  
  
'Go ahead and heal Inu Yasha. He will need it for what he plans on doing after he awakes.' He patted her arm and moved over to Inu Yasha. He placed his hands on the boy's body and could feel all the broken bones and wounds through his clothing. He focused and faster than he could've imagined the wounds sealed up but he had to run to be sick in the corner again. 'Take the girl and go. Inu Yasha will be awake by the time the sun shines on that door.. well what's left of it anyway.' He looked and saw that she was right. The 'door' was smashed into a million pieces by the passageway. He grinned then hunkered down scooping her into his arms. Standing up he looked down on Inu Yasha and sighed. 'Wait! Take off her necklace and leave it with the hanyou.'  
  
"Why?" He asked aloud before he balanced her in one arm to rip off the broken jewel with the other. "This one?" He could feel her agreement so he walked over to Inu Yasha and dropped it on his chest. He left with the sleeping girl in his arms. Tears trailed down her cheeks and he heard her whisper the boy's name. "Inu Yasha." He frowned. 'Your work is cut out for you. You know that right?' He could hear her sigh in his head and knew she realized that.  
  
Kagome opened her eyes the light was blinding. She groaned and rolled over her arms reaching for Inu Yasha as she tried to comprehend where she was. Her eyes opened wide when she didn't feel him near at all. Her eyes snapped open as she sat bolt upright. She heard someone humming in a room just off of the one she was in. She stealthily got up and moved to the other way out. Seeing the trees outside she bolted only to run into a wall of muscle. "A-a Hello.." She said cautiously. The boy's blonde hair moved in the breeze coming in from outside. His green eyes delved deep into hers. She had to look up to see his face. 'Wow he's even taller than Inu Yasha. Not quite as cute though but nice for a human.' She could hear raucous laughter coming in from the room where the humming person was.  
  
Kagome watched as a pretty girl came out. Her face was heart shaped whereas the boy's had been angular. Her eyes were a rich dark brown as was her hair which was pulled back into a loose braid down her back. The girl was about her height and a little bit larger than she was. "Not as cute eh?" She said startling Kagome.  
  
"D-did I say that out loud?" She looked worriedly at the boy hoping that she hadn't offended him. He shook his head confusing her.  
  
"I can read your mind dear don't worry he doesn't know who you were comparing him to and I bet that's a good thing." Mirth seemed to roll off of her in waves slightly infectious. Kagome found herself wanting to smile but cursed herself for even thinking it. She looked up at the silent boy that was so close to her she could smell him without her being a hanyou.  
  
"Sorry." She mumbled and decided to try her luck squeezing past him. As she was expecting his arm caught her around the waist and drug her against his chest to keep her still while the strangely beautiful girl got so close to her face she could see tiny flecks of green in her dark brown eyes. "What?" She snapped. She contemplated on asking where Inu Yasha was but decided that if he was here he would've already gotten her out of this place and this guy behind her wouldn't be acting so 'familiar' with her.  
  
"Akiko I don't think she likes you holding her like that. Maybe you should let go." She smiled at Kagome. Kagome was tempted to shield her eyes at the brightness of the smile. She saw that Kaori had caught that comment and was laughing. "Oh I like you. You're funny!" She placed a companionable arm around Kagome's shoulders once Akiko had let her down. "Well we do have a reason for you being here and no your hanyou is not here. We didn't need him but rest assured that he will be fine-" This got her a dry look as Kagome pulled out of the girl's grasp.  
  
"Listen I want to go back to him. I don't want to stay here no offense or anything because I don't feel like you people are bad people its just you don't know me and I want to be back with people who do know me." She explained quickly. She looked at Akiko who gave her a glare. His green eyes disconcerted her and made her feel exposed his being taller than her only added to the discomfort.  
  
"No you listen here girl. We know a lot about you more so than you think. And just so you know if it weren't for me you wouldn't have a hanyou to go back to nor would you be capable of going back. The least you could do would be to listen to Kaori and see if you won't help us because even if you refuse I can always take back what I did and then you would be dead and so would your precious hanyou. This won't take too much of your time and I expect you to show at least a little bit of gratitude." He glowered down at her. His words made her want to crawl in a hole and die but instead of cowering she stood up to him.  
  
"I didn't ask you to help me. Maybe you shouldn't have helped me not everyone is so nice you know and how would you know if I would help you anyways? Maybe I'm some untrustworthy vagabond off the streets? Think of that one Sherlock?" At their confused looks she once again cursed herself for using future terminology. "Listen I don't want to snap at you I just want to go back as soon as possible and make sure that he's alright."  
  
"Don't worry he is okay. There is nothing wrong with him and we even left that jewel that was around your neck as your mind seemed to scream about how important it was to you and how you wanted to make sure it wasn't stolen. So yes he has it and we will make sure that he stays out of harm's way until you return to him. We'll even prompt him to go back to your friends so that they might be safe from the danger they seem to attract too." He said softening his tone to make her want to agree. He tried to use his powers of persuasion but her mind was resistant to it. 'Kaori what you taught me isn't working!' He fumed to her in his head.  
  
'It wouldn't work anyway. She has quite the strong barrier around her mind and the only way I was able to discern so much about her was because you were touching her and I share a rather strong link with you. You won't be able to do anything to her without touching her. I can barely do it myself and you know how strong I am.' She answered.  
  
Kagome watched the exchange happen and decided that she wouldn't trust these people if they couldn't trust her to say what they were talking about. Kaori looked at her surprised. "If it were important you would be included don't worry."  
  
"If it weren't important you would talk to me about it." She sat down on the futon that she had occupied earlier. "What is it that you two want me to do so desperately?"  
  
"You are able to go into the past when you dream. We want you to do something for us while you go into that state. It is very important for you to do this for us." Kaori grabbed her hands afraid that she would say no.  
  
"Well I can't really do it if I know nothing about it can I?" She said. Akiko looked at her shocked. 'She's really going to do this for us? I thought she wouldn't she didn't seem like that much of a giving person earlier when she tried to escape.' He was still sore about being told that he wasn't as pretty as someone else she had seen.  
  
'Well she is rather agreeable. Think about it would you have done the same in her position? Besides it was the love of her life that she thinks looks better than you and even you thought so when you were healing him as you thought he was cute.' She smiled at him. Turning back to Kagome she focused in. "Our families created a monstrous spell in that time that you are visiting. We need it destroyed. I can't tell you what it does because that may alter fate even more so. I can tell you that you need to go to the village that is just being built and make sure that you take your little love with you." At that she smiled. "If you take him with you then you could visit him while you sleep in the past. I would take you to him and don't worry I will know nothing of your experiences with him as long as you don't think about them okay? I can't delve information out of people if they aren't thinking about it in their minds. Even then I am not so rude as to look but if you think about it a lot then it kind of flashes through and I would know. So while you're here we will take care of your body and you would take care of our problem." She smiled again. "Before you go though you might want to eat and I made some food so you can eat with us if you like. But if you decide that you don't want to help us then I won't let him undo your healing as it was nice of you to just listen to us and consider it which all we can ask." She left the room and Akiko sat in a wooden chair across from her and slumped in weariness.  
  
"Are you okay?" Kagome asked tentatively. "I didn't mean to upset you if I did."  
  
He waved her off. "No its not you." She frowned and could feel his sadness radiating off of him. She got up and placed her hand on his forearm. "I think you are rather pretty myself and if I weren't already otherwise occupied with Inu Yasha then I just might try for you." She smiled as he grinned at her. "But he would kill you for even touching me and I'm certain that your sister Kaori wouldn't want that and she is such a nice soul that I wouldn't want to hurt her."  
  
Akiko grinned some more. "Well-" He drawled out. "I doubt your hanyou would be able to take me down." He smiled some more and patted her hand. "But the reason I don't feel so happy is because she has her heart set on you doing this for her-"  
  
"What did the spell do that you want reversed so badly?" Kagome asked certain that it had to do with them.  
  
He frowned. "I don't think that you should know."  
  
"Why?" She looked into his green eyes searching for the reason.  
  
"Because you will be disgusted by your hanyou if you knew what you're going to have to do." He sighed and caught her hand. "Make sure that you don't do what I did. Make sure of that." She patted his hand reassuringly trying to get him to calm down.  
  
"I won't as long as I know what it was that you did." He frowned and cut off. She knew that he wouldn't continue on unless some miracle ordained by God. She was interrupted by Akiko saying that Kaori had finished with dinner.  
  
Kagome sat eating the rice and other available items on the table not really listening as Akiko and Kaori talked at her rather than to her as she didn't respond. 'What spell could it be that they would need my help? What is it that Akiko did that he doesn't want me to?' She poked at the fish on her plate as she thought. 'How is it that they can talk telekinetically? Or that he has healing powers? And is that part of the spell?'  
  
Kaori looked at her. "Once again Kagome you are throwing your thoughts out so loudly that even Akiko heard some of them if not all of them." She smiled. "If you knew about how the spell worked then it might influence what you do and I just can't have that." Her smile shone again and Kagome studied her plate intently. "As for our reasonable 'powers' we got those as a sort of consolation prize I suppose. It was for what we went through with the spell some other people got special gifts also even though they weren't directly involved in this." She thought for a moment her face brightened as she came up with whatever it was that she had been trying to figure out. "You know that dead priestess? I think her name is Kikyou ne?" Kagome nodded. "Well before she died so many years ago she was gifted with empathy and that is how she tricked your little hanyou into becoming human for her. It is also the reason why she sounded so convincing when she asked Inu Yasha to go to Hell with her. She hit all the guilt buttons in just the right way to get him to comply but he has no intention of doing that anymore just so you know."  
  
Kagome's jaw hit the floor. "How did you know all that stuff?" Kaori smiled and started to eat again. After dinner Kaori took her outside into the fresh air. Akiko came also and they sat watching the sun set. Kagome felt the familiar power surge through her body while Kaori and Akiko stared at her transformation. After it was over Akiko sat in front of her with a big grin on his face. "If that hanyou ever did leave you I want you to promise you would come to me so that I might steal you away as you just stole my heart." He clutched his chest playfully putting on a mask of utter puppy love.  
  
Kagome laughed. "Flattery gets you no where my dear. Although I will make a mental note of that." She giggled as he took her hand and kissed the back of it.  
  
Kaori kicked him lightly with her foot. "You show off!" She laughed at this antics as he lay his head in her lap. "You just want to have your own personal sex slave that's all."  
  
She grinned at him and he feigned a hurt look. "How could you think so lowly of me? Besides Kagome wouldn't mind being locked up in a room with me to keep her company. Would you Kagome?" He waggled his eyebrows suggestively.  
  
Kagome burst out laughing her cheeks flushed with merriment. "I'm sorry I'll have to decline no matter how tempting the offer." She sobered up as thoughts of Inu Yasha came floating through her mind.  
  
Kaori and Akiko both threw their arms around her and held her close. "Please be careful when you go Kagome." Kaori said. "If it were under different circumstances then I think we could've been the best of friends." She gave one last squeeze before she released her hold on the girl.  
  
"Remember-" Akiko whispered in her ear, "Do not sacrifice yourself. Do not. Just don't do as I did." Then he released her and her world faded to the black of the deepest dreams. Akiko gathered up her collapsed form and brought her into the house. Kaori followed silently. "He will come for her soon. What should we do? He is bound to want to kill us for taking her away from him as we are changing the past with this little stunt."  
  
Kaori's dark head was bowed and he could feel the sadness radiating off of her. He settled Kagome on the futon putting her hands upon her chest as if she were dead. Her face bore the flushed cheeks from their laughter as her lips were equally red. "Yes he will come. And yes he will be angry but this is what we wanted. This curse of a spell to be lifted. And she can do that and I can only hope and pray that she follows your advice and does not sacrifice her happiness to break it." She sighed as she could feel the enraged hanyou coming. "He will be here soon."  
  
Inu Yasha awoke, his hand wandered to find Kagome wanting to know how she fared. When his hand met nothing but air his eyes opened and he rolled over. He heard a clunk as. 'That's Kagome's jewel piece! What would she be doing without it?' He growled. Kagome wasn't there. He felt another growl rise as he smelled that another male had entered their cave and he had taken Kagome from him. He could smell that the man had touched him before he left leaving his scent on Inu Yasha's clothes.  
  
Inu Yasha pulled his shirt over his head and inhaled deeply engraving the scent into his brain to never be forgotten. Placing the jewel around his neck, he tied the shirt around his waist and hurried after the smell. He figured it had been almost an hour since the man had been through. He made a mental note to dismember whoever had attacked them last night along with everyone else involved. 'The man who had taken Kagome however would die a slow painful death and feel every little tiny. well gigantic thing he did to mutilate the man's body. Kagome was his and he would not tolerate letting some man get off with his Kagome. Yep the man was going to die horrible and he was going to love every single minute of it.' His countenance grew darker with every passing minute as he tried to remember all the best ways to torture a victim and keep it conscious until the end. 'Oh yeah. this guy was going to rue the day he messed with his Kagome.'  
  
He felt like he had been infused with all the power in the world and he definitely felt like using it all up on this new male. 'Well at least its human and not Kouga. That wimpy wolf. Well I wouldn't have minded slicing HIM up but Kagome might not have let me do it had it been him.' He growled again startling all the birds out of the trees that hadn't already left. 'This is taking so long!' He whined in his head. 'I want to kill the man NOW.' He felt a gripping terror rise in him that maybe Kagome might have already died from those wounds that had been inflicted upon her. 'Come to think of it. I should've died from that blow already also. It was delivered at a place where it meant instant death for humans. Maybe something miraculous happened while I was out or I just attained a new level of healing that I hadn't known that possessed maybe. Yeah now that would be something I could accept.' He grinned but with his death revolving mind it was not a pretty sight to behold.  
  
He could feel that the man was getting closer as his scent only got stronger. "I will kill you for touching Kagome!" He yelled into the air wanting to put the fear of God into him. He could smell a woman close by along with the man. He stopped and watched. Kagome was sitting in front of the man laughing about something. He couldn't hear it but then he saw the girl and the man hug Kagome tightly looking so sad. They talked some more with her before she dropped like a sack of potatoes. He was about to go charging in to rip the man to shreds for touching Kagome, when the man picked up Kagome and brought her inside. Inu Yasha waited until they had gone inside then he ran to their door and stood waiting for them to notice him. He heard all of what they said while they were inside but they just smelled so sad. He saw the regret flit across the blonde man's features as he passed his hand over Kagome's face. His hand was thin but his fingers were long and slender. The girl was a beauty her face had 'tragic maiden' stamped all over it. Her figure was thin and small, she was not very old by her looks but he had a feeling that their looks just might be deceiving in this case.  
  
"He will come for her soon. What should we do? He is bound to want to kill us for taking her away from him as we are changing the past with this little stunt." He listened as the man said it his melancholy evident in his voice and demeanor.  
  
"Yes he will come. And yes he will be angry but this is what we wanted. This curse of a spell to be lifted. And she can do that and I can only hope and pray that she follows your advice and does not sacrifice her happiness to break it. He will be here soon." The girl's voice was a mix of light and deep tones sounding glorious in its own way.  
  
"I am already here." He announced himself as he stood in the doorway. He could feel the sides of the door frames brush his shoulders as he stood there effectively blocking their escapes. "What did you do with MY Kagome?" His voice was threateningly low and dangerous.  
  
"I have a deal to make with you. From what I saw of you in her mind. I think the only way you will trust us is to give you Kagome but she can not be taken away from us. She will surely fail her task if that were to happen." The girl said. Inu Yasha's anger grew as he listened to her talk on as if she knew him. 'And she got into Kagome's head?' He fumed. "Yes, I got into her head and what I propose is that we come with you and we go to where your other friends are.. The monk and the exterminator and the tiny kitsune." She held up her hand before he had a chance to tell her to take her offer to hell, stick it up her butt and rotate on it. "Listen we will wait until morning for your answer but you may not leave with her without us. You may stay in here with her and we will not interrupt you but I do warn you that should you take her away from us you risk her death and there is a barrier just so you know. And as you may guess, you cannot cross it unless I give the go ahead." With that said she nodded and walked out of the room followed closely by the boy.  
  
He rushed to Kagome's side and took her hand into his. "Kagome?" He said softly. He knew she wouldn't wake up like the other times he had done it but he tried anyway. "Kagome you have to wake up dear. You need to come with me." He put his arms under her shoulders and hugged her to his chest.  
  
Kaori watched him from a crack in the door. 'Oh Akiko.' She wished that Inu Yasha would let them come with them. 'If we can get to go with him then I want you to do me a favor.'  
  
'And that would be?' Akiko sounded in her head with heavy sarcasm. She reached back and patted his arm to comfort him.  
  
'I only want you to play Cupid for a while. Her monk friend, Miroku-if I remember correctly, and her exterminator friend, Sango, aren't on the best of terms. She wants them to get the 'Happily Ever After' deal but he has a problem with being a letch and Sango is seriously averred to that. He constantly gets hit by her and Kagome feels that they should get together.' She smiled knowing that he liked to do this type of thing. 'You can go about it freestyle I don't personally care how you do it just so that you do.'  
  
Akiko smiled. 'Any way I want?' He teasingly poked her in the back causing her to fall into the room on her face. She got up hastily. "I tripped." She said as she flounced into the kitchen. Akiko turned quickly and went to his bedroom.  
  
'Kagome can you really die if I take you away from them?' He looked to where he knew they had been spying and then looked to where they had retreated. He clasped her tighter to his chest. "Hey you two people!" He yelled not knowing their names.  
  
Kaori poked her head in he heard an answering grunt from the back room where Akiko had disappeared. "What are your names?"  
  
"Oh I am so sorry that was so rude of us. I am Kaori and the boy back there is Akiko. We are brother and sister." She smiled but he could smell some sadness radiate off of her through her scent when she said that.  
  
"Well I want to know just where Kagome is and just what she's doing." He growled lightly.  
  
"She is in the past with you like she always does while dreaming. She is going to destroy a spell that we can't bear to have in existence any more and the only way to do that would be to have the spell maker destroyed. He died of natural causes a while back so we had no way of killing him until she came along." She sat in a chair across from Inu Yasha. "But if we go with you we will be able to assist Kagome to make sure she is unharmed."  
  
Akiko had wandered in hearing Kaori talking of how to get part of the mission done. "In any case you will find out what exactly happened when Kagome gets back as it is happening in the past. Might I suggest that you take us with you as Kaori said earlier and then we would help you find out as much as you could about this curse.." At Inu Yasha's growl he changed the label. "blessing that has been bestowed upon her. And maybe how to make her become all demon as there will be points in time where we will be able to go to Kagome in the past and we should be able to go to the village that has all this information-"  
  
"It is already burnt in the time where Kagome is. She found me just as it happened and took care of me for quite a while after that." He dropped off looking down at the girl in his arms wishing she was awake and wanting to take her away from these strange people. "You may come with me but I do not want any more spying is that clear? I don't put up with it at home I won't do it here."  
  
They nodded and Kaori pointed to a room down the hall on the right. "That's the guest room you can stay in there-" She watched as he picked up Kagome gently and walked down the hall with her in his arms 'like a bride and her new groom.' She thought.  
  
Authors Note: So how did you like my fic so far? You can tell me in a review, which I would greatly appreciate and this time I won't be so lenient on when I post my chapters if you can't read I can't type for you end of story. I will continue on this story on my own but if no one reviews there will be no other people reading it deal? I think we have that down pat and I expect you to review a chapter at a time because the way I write you could skip over something you wanted to comment on and if you review every chapter that means that I will think that I have more readers than I do therefore getting out a new chapter got it? Thank you for spending part of your busy day reading what I wrote and I think I just may up the rating in a few more chapters. I'm not too sure. Oh and if you have any questions about my fic so far feel free to email me and ask and I will try to answer to the best of my ability as long as I don't give away too much of the story there is a good chance that I will answer okay? Okay. 


	4. Reunions Can Be Magical

Chapter 4: Reunions can be magical  
  
Disclaimer: Inu Yasha would be seriously mad at me should I say that I own him, so for all intents and purposes he is a free hanyou. Unless Kagome decides to be his mate among various other things.  
  
Inu Yasha: Would you shut up already? Sheesh you talk so much it's boring and of course you don't own me. I am my own man.  
  
Danielle: You keep telling yourself that and when you go slamming to the ground after Kagome says 'sit'. Think on your words for a while then.  
  
Inu Yasha: *growl* did I ask for you to bring that up?  
  
Danielle: No but I did anyway so live with it. *smiles brightly*  
  
Inu Yasha laid with Kagome through the night thinking on his choice to bring the two with him into his little group. 'Can I trust them? What if they go and use our thoughts against us? Well if they do decide to do that, I can promise that they won't be living all that long and Kagome won't do whatever it is that they seem so intent on having her do.' He nosed in her hair, wanting to make sure that she was really there and couldn't leave.  
  
He looked down onto her sleeping face. 'She is so beautiful especially when she is asleep.' He thought he saw her eyes flutter under her lashes. Dismissing it for a figment of his imagination he ran his hand over her face wishing that she were able to respond to his touch like she had to his kiss. 'Maybe not like how she responded to my kiss earlier... I want her to like it and be shaken... about like I was.' He sighed, remembering that made him want to taste her again. 'But she's sleeping.' His mind protested. 'Well you want to make her yours so what's the problem?' He paused. 'If she were to be mine she wouldn't mind and she's always talking about those stupid fairy tales where the girl wakes up by loves first kiss... So maybe it wouldn't be her first kiss but it had better be her love.' With that thought firmly locked in his mind he pressed his lips gently to hers. He touched her lips lightly with his tongue to taste her better. Her breathing quickened and he could've sworn she was awake but when he brought his head up she was still just as before. Nuzzling her face, he rested his face in her neck and slept deeply.  
  
Kaori sat at Akiko's feet in his room. "You know he doesn't trust us." She sighed and he stroked her hair comfortingly. "I wish he would. It would make things a lot easier for us." She closed her eyes as she rested her head in his lap. His fingers wound lightly through her hair making intricate patterns.  
  
"I wouldn't imagine that he would. No matter what we did because we forced Kagome to go away from him. But technically he is still with her just not in this time frame. Or at this age..." He lay back on his bed and closed his eyes. He could feel the bed shift as Kaori settled herself beside him, resting her head on his chest, her long brown hair spilling across him. He lightly fingered a lock that landed in his face. "No he won't trust us at all. But we can get the others to love us, it won't be that hard."  
  
She shook her head. "I didn't want to do this to her. I had hoped that it would be the dead miko that could help us. She could've sacrificed something that would be far less valuable than what Kagome has to lose... And the hanyou would be most disappointed should she-" Akiko silenced her with his hand over her mouth.  
  
"Be quiet and sleep. That is what we're going for isn't it? To keep her from giving up her love?" Kaori nodded and went to sleep dreaming of Kagome. She could see the tiny version of Inu Yasha clinging to her leg and trying to appear fearsome to ward off Kaori. 'Even in his childhood he doesn't trust me.' She thought rather disappointed.  
  
Of the morning, Inu Yasha woke up with his nose buried in Kagome's neck. He had apparently moved her during the night as her body was draped over his and she had not woken up once that he knew of. To make sure he called her name quietly... He waited but when she didn't respond by anything but a slight smile he figured she hadn't. He propped himself up on his elbows. Her body lay limply against his fitting against him perfectly. Purposely turning his thoughts from that area he felt the fur blanket beneath his hands and how it rasped against his bare skin. 'Kagome would love a blanket like this.' He sighed and ran his hands over the material. His thoughts took a turn for the gutter as he imagined just what the blanket would be good for...  
  
He had stayed half awake during the entire night out of a hope that maybe she would wake up miraculously and he wouldn't have to drag those humans with him. He sighed and sat up draping her legs over his thighs. He swung his legs over the side of the bed, standing up with his hands firmly under her bottom. He walked out of the room and yelled for the humans to get up. "If you want to come I suggest you be ready in five minutes. I am not waiting on you two, so move it." He growled.  
  
Kaori took off to her room and grabbed the suitcase she had prepared the night before. "Ready." Akiko grabbed his also. Inu Yasha just growled and stormed out of the house upset at being bested. He clutched Kagome to his chest and rubbed her back as she slept, missing her company terribly.  
  
Kaori tried to talk with him but he gave her a warning growl and she dropped back a few paces. He looked at Kagome's slumbering face and wanted desperately to be with her. 'Wait she talks in her sleep.' He smiled to himself. "Hey Kagome are you with me?"  
  
She mumbled a sleepy 'yes' and buried her face against his neck murmuring nothing in particular. He smiled and rubbed his cheek over hers. "Are you already on your journey to destroy that spell?" She nodded again. He grinned. 'She was already off to go get rid of whatever it was that was eating at Kaori and Akiko...'  
  
Kaori and Akiko moved up beside him and laid their hands on her back. He growled menacingly. "Don't." Was their only warning. They drew their hands away and moved behind him once again. He talked to her lightly not asking questions so much as telling her things that had happened. Her breath was warm on his throat and he was assured that she was not totally lost to him with her little problem which he now appreciated.  
  
"She's not supposed to be able to do that Inu Yasha. She shouldn't be able to talk with you." Kaori commented. 'How is she doing that? Her entire conscious is supposed to be in the past.' Her brows furrowed together. 'She is a lot different from what she is supposed to be Akiko.'  
  
'Well you wouldn't expect her to fit the bill perfectly would you? And how am I supposed to know how she's managing that? Maybe she is mated with him...' He looked at the hanyou's back and shook his head. 'Definitely not. Well in any case once she wakes I will fix that little problem.' He smiled charmingly.  
  
'You are too much of a match maker you know that?' Kaori looked forward as Inu Yasha made a harsh remark. "I would like to see you get through me if you intend to make her stop. Would you want her to be completely lost to me- uh us." He corrected quickly growling at his slip up.  
  
"No, we don't want her lost to any one. What she is doing right now will make your bond with her stronger, if anything else, and when you sleep at night you will remember what had happened in the past. And you will be able to know before any one else does and we will not tell the others so that you may keep this to yourself." Kaori said soothingly. "How long do you anticipate it will take for us to meet up with the group?"  
  
"Not too long, as I know where they're heading and I know how to get there faster than they can so we should meet them tonight as I have no intention of stopping. Hope that's okay with you because it's not up for compromising." He grinned to himself as they couldn't see him.  
  
They walked all day long and as Inu Yasha had promised they didn't stop not once. He felt the waves of power ripple through her body as she changed. He looked down as her tail grew out of her pants and curled up around his waist. Her ears made themselves known as they twitched and moved against his cheek.  
  
"I imagine that we should get there in a few hours." He looked at the floor hearing the crunch of leaves under his feet. 'It's so weird not going to look for Shikon no Tama.' He looked at her face again and sighed. 'I wish that this was what we were doing. I wish that everything could go back to the way it used to be, with you following me around. And arguing with me and dropping me to the ground... Well maybe I'm glad that you don't do that anymore but...' He sighed sadly, 'Maybe I wouldn't mind you plowing my face into the dirt if it means that you'll wake up to me again.'  
  
"Inu Yasha it's not like she's never going to wake up again. I can't tell you when but she will." Kaori said scolding him for his thoughts.  
  
"If you don't stay out of my head I swear I will tear off yours. Got it?" He bared his fangs for emphasis. "If I wanted you to know what I was thinking I would've said something." He sniffed the air. 'The well is nearby. Should I go warn her mother so that she doesn't worry?' He looked back to the two humans trailing him. "Stay here I'm going to come back. I need to take her to her family's home for a while and it won't take too long." Before they could say anything he had run off and left them alone.  
  
'You know he could learn some patience. It's like he decides stuff and then just acts on impulse.' Kaori complained. 'And I don't peek that often, its just when he blares out his thoughts like that...' Her tiny arms crossed her chest in irritation.  
  
'Don't worry over it. As I told you earlier he's just worried about her and only her for now. And obviously he isn't used to having to show his feelings in front of others. I would imagine that their companions don't even know of what he is going to do to change their status.' He smiled ruefully. 'No I don't think they do.'  
  
Inu Yasha leapt through the well feeling the familiar weightlessness that assaulted him on every trip through the time portal. He hugged Kagome tightly to his chest. "I'm going to go talk with your mother Kagome tell her not to worry."  
  
Her face buried itself in his neck and she said something but all he could feel was her lips moving against his neck. Assuming that it was a positive response, he smiled as he leapt out of the well and adjusted her so that she seemed more comfortable. He walked into her house. He sniffed the air. Her grandpa was home and so was her brother but no mother. "Hey Sota and Kagome's grandpa come here." He walked down the hall following their scents into the living room.  
  
Grandpa looked up from the TV Guide in his lap. "What in the world is Kagome doing there, demon?" He leapt up from his chair surprising the hanyou as he was such an old man. The geezer put his withered hands on her back and tried to pull her from him. Inu Yasha growled loudly.  
  
"I came to warn you that she is okay and that she just can't come to visit you for a while because she is busy doing other things." He glared and jerked away from the old man making him stumble a bit before he returned Inu Yasha's glare.  
  
"But she is here now, demon. Leave her here with her family... If there's something wrong with her it should be dealt with by the family not by you." Inu Yasha glared some more but he felt a small tug on his pants leg. Looking down he saw Kagome's little brother and his expression softened somewhat.  
  
"I don't worry Inu Yasha-sama. You're so great I'm certain that you can help Kagome with whatever it is that hurts her ne? I won't let mom worry okay?" Sota said smiling up at him. The little boy's big brown eyes looked up into his all watery and glossy with held in tears for his sister. Inu Yasha pondered on how Sota so resembled the girl in his arms. His black hair was mussed as if he had just crawled out of bed almost like Kagome's when they were traveling although hers was way longer.  
  
"Do not worry Sota. Kagome will be fine once she finishes sleeping okay? But that will be in a while, so don't worry ne? I will take care of her." He was startled when the little boy's arms crushed his legs. He smiled down at the boy and moved back to the well. Sota followed him and tugged his pants once again before he was to leave. Inu Yasha seated himself on the lip of the well and looked back at the boy. Inu Yasha could hear Kagome's grandfather yelling about demons taking innocents and what ever else he decided that Inu Yasha had done to his precious granddaughter.  
  
Sota pulled himself up onto the back of Inu Yasha. Leaning forward he pressed a kiss to Kagome's forehead and then dropped down. He handed Inu Yasha his regular garments that he had left last time they had been there. Sota smiled, his eyes still watering as he ran out of the shrine. Inu Yasha looked to where the boy had put his lips and nuzzled it briefly before he dropped down into the void again clutching his clothes to his chest. He felt the weightless feeling dissipate as he reached the bottom of the well and their time. He adjusted Kagome once more before he leapt out of the well.  
  
He set Kagome down and changed clothing quickly. With his proper attire in place, he ran back to were he had left those 'stupid humans' only to find they had passed out. "Get up you idiots. Now is not the time to be sleeping!" He yelled at them and kicked their luggage out from under their heads. He glared at them until they grumblingly got up and shouldered their bags continuing on following the impatient hanyou.  
  
'You know if Kagome didn't love him as she does I would believe there were no redeeming qualities to that idiot.' Akiko fumed. 'I absolutely just can't stand that boy! And if it weren't for the fact that she would kill us if we seriously harmed him, he would be far from alright by now.'  
  
'Well he is probably doing this because of something done over in Kagome's time and he does love her it shows and that is the only reason we are going along with him ne? We don't want her to have a sad ending as she is doing something to change our own. And she obviously wants a future with this idiot so lets humor him because she wishes it so.' She rubbed the back of her head where it still smarted from Inu Yasha kicking her headrest out from under her. Akiko's hands over came hers and rubbed soothing circles around the offended area. She sighed in content and relaxed slightly. "Where are we Inu Yasha and how much longer is it going to be?" She asked as she stilled Akiko's hand on her head and the warm sensations he caused by healing her of her problems. 'The last thing we need is you getting violently ill around that stubborn hanyou. He would make sure that you didn't come along and I need you if we're going to do that favor for Kagome- chan.'  
  
"Feh can't you be quiet for one blessed moment?" He growled then thinking better of it, he said as nicely as he could manage. "It won't take too long. I only think it will take an hour at most. I don't feel to happy with the situation as is so." He trailed off. 'Rather go to hell before I apologize to them. After all they are the ones who put her in this position.' He looked down at her sleeping face and his expression, unknown to him, had changed considerably.  
  
'He can't be all that bad. Look he even almost apologized to us and from what I read in Kagome that is a rare occurrence indeed.' She smiled at Akiko. He frowned down at her but said nothing. His hand found hers and squeezed it lightly before he released it. Rain started to come down. 'Just our luck you know it?' Her face soured again.  
  
Miroku and Sango looked up at the sky as rain continued to come down in waves. "Sango we're going to need to find some place to stay." He pulled the kitsune out from the small bag he had been carrying. "Shippo." The little kit opened his eyes and yawned hugely. The rain spattered down onto his face startling him. He looked around him owlishly. "Yes it's raining. Now wake up as I am not carrying you anymore. We need to find shelter." Miroku ordered.  
  
Sango shielded her eyes and saw a glowing light in the distance. "Miroku do you see that? Maybe someone's living out here?"  
  
"Well we'll never know until we try. Let's go." Miroku took her hand and Shippo landed on Sango's shoulder. They ran towards the light splashing mud against their legs and clothes. By the time they reached the "light" they were soaked through and shivering.  
  
"You idiots what are you doing out in the rain? I knew I would find you out here, doing God knows what in the rain. Let's go." Inu Yasha ordered them. They stood there, mouths agape. "What? You guys are wasting time, lets go. Kagome and those humans are over here just follow me." With that he left not looking back to see if they followed him.  
  
"Did you see that? Inu Yasha was wearing Kagome's jewel shards. Since when did she trust him enough with those?" Sango whispered as they struggled to keep up with the fast paced hanyou. "Inu Yasha wait up!" She called quickly as he almost disappeared in the torrents of rain. He stopped and waited, openly glaring at them for not listening the first time.  
  
They followed him into a cave as he led them to where dry moss grew like a blanket upon the ground. Shippo squealed at seeing Kagome and made to leap at her only to be stopped dangling in mid-air above his destination. "No. Kagome does not need to be bothered. She is busy and I expect you to leave her alone for once in your life." He glared at the kit.  
  
Shippo looked to the hanyou then to Kagome then back again. "She doesn't look like she's busy to me." He glared back at him. "You're just jealous! She's going to let me lay with her as soon as I get there but you just won't let me because you want to yourself." He accused hotly. "KAGOME!" He squealed. When her facial expression didn't change and she slept on, he got confused. "What's wrong with Kagome? What did you do to her you jerk?" He started in as he always did assuming that whatever it was that bothered Kagome was the hanyou's fault.  
  
At that time Kaori and Akiko moved out of the shadows. "He did nothing to put Kagome in this position but do believe him when he says she is busy." Miroku was taken aback by the sheer beauty of either of the people in front of him. Sango quietly glared at the houshi but was stealing glances at them also in between her hand flexing for her weapon. 'Come on Miroku get it over with I can see that you're dying to ask her.' Her face bore all the anger and frustration she could muster but looking at the people in front of her. "Are you the two humans that Inu Yasha said he had to bring along?" The blonde man nodded.  
  
Miroku walked up to Kaori, gesturing for her to sit. She took his offer and he followed suit. "May I ask you a question?"  
  
She laughed. Her merriment spilling over in her eyes. "I know what you want to ask but I'm afraid I can't whether I wanted to or not." She smiled at him and patted his cheek.  
  
"Are you married to the handsome man there?" He asked confused. 'How could a woman not be able to whether she wanted to or not?'  
  
"I am barren so it would be pointless for you to ask as I cannot physically do what you wanted to ask." She smiled again and took his hand. 'Besides I know of someone else who might.' His mouth worked. Her lips hadn't moved but he had clearly heard her beautiful voice tinkle in his head like a chime.  
  
"How. How did you do that?" He asked his eyes wide. "And how did you know what I was going to ask?" He took his hands out of hers and leaned back by this time Sango was seething above him. 'Can he not. Why does he always have to ask every girl he sees? It's almost like he ignores me. He's never asked me yet he deems it right to ask everyone else?' She was unaware of the calculating looks she was receiving from the boy.  
  
She felt warm hands on her shoulders and turned quickly to see deep forest green eyes peering into hers. He gave a light squeeze and she felt utter peace and calm steal over her body. All of the tension and stress she had been feeling, evaporated into nothingness. "Wow if you use that move on any other girl I'm certain they would fall at your feet in an instant." She said sleepily then her eyes shot open realizing what she had said. She blushed profusely.  
  
He grinned at her. 'I have done it before it's a gift I have. And don't worry about the houshi. I know what's going on in his head and you have no need to worry. Kaori isn't barren either she's just saying that so that he won't take offense to her turning him down, after all he gets rejected so often its bound to eventually take some toll on his ego.'  
  
She wasn't looking at him so she assumed he had spoken aloud. Her mouth gaped, why wasn't Miroku saying something? After a comment like that he would certainly be saying SOMETHING about it. She glanced back to the man. His blonde curls fell into her eyes as he leaned closer. 'He likes you just don't say anything to him as I'm giving you an unfair advantage as he won't know if you like him or not but I can promise you that he won't go and ask any other girls to "bear his child" while I'm here I can guarantee it.' He smirked.  
  
Miroku turned around to ask Sango what she thought of their guests, only to see the beautiful boy looking for all the world as if he were going to kiss Sango AND SHE WASN'T FIGHTING HIM! He wanted to scream at the man to get his hands off of her. Instead being the gentleman that he was he took his staff and 'gently' tapped the man in the back of the legs causing him to collapse on the floor laughing heartily. He coughed lightly and turned quickly around before Sango could see that it was him who had done it. 'That wasn't very nice of you Miroku. But the reason you can hear me and I knew what you were going to ask is because I am telepathic and I can share my powers. That is what my cousin Akiko was doing. He is a healer so he had to touch her and relax her before it would work.'  
  
"Well it was a little too 'touchy' for my tastes." He said aloud. He quickly glanced back to make sure that Sango hadn't heard him. She was busy helping Akiko up off the floor and laughing herself as he made a crack about his clumsiness and the scrapes he had gotten himself into thanks to it.  
  
He glared. 'My name is Kaori and I don't think you should talk aloud anymore if you have any thing you want to say just think it and I will hear it. Even if it is in the back of your mind.' She smiled at him. He stiffened. 'Yes I know that you love that girl that is with Akiko, as of now and I am here to help you get her.'  
  
'But. I shouldn't have her. What if we don't defeat Naraku in time and then I.. I die and leave her with child by herself?' Miroku's face was drawn in worry at the thought.  
  
He felt a cool hand rest on his. He looked up into Kaori's extremely dark eyes and felt himself drown in their depths. 'Do not worry of such things right now. Right now that is not the issue. And not everything in love revolves around sex and I think that may be WHY you're having trouble getting her to respond the way you want her to.' Kaori suggested lightly.  
  
'But to get an heir that requires the use of sex.' He pointed out bluntly. Kaori shook her head and ruffled his hair lightly. 'What? I love her and I just. I want her to love me and I didn't want to lie to her about what I wanted but I didn't want her to. I just can't explain it.' He sighed and bent his head.  
  
'That's enough self revelation tonight, my friend. Get some sleep and we will talk more on our journey of the morning.' She smiled and brought him to where she and Akiko had set up camp while Inu Yasha had been out getting them. Kagome was laid out on one of the mats with Inu Yasha 's mat pulled close to hers. He had ignored his mat, creeping onto Kagome's and sharing both blankets with her. His arms were wrapped around her neck pillowing her head on one of them and curling her face into his chest. His face was serene and peaceful as he slept with his love in his embrace.  
  
Miroku looked at the tail protruding from her back side and his hand flexed to feel that silky texture again just to marvel at it. Kaori snickered at him. 'I'm certain that if you should try to touch her tail you would pull back a stump for an arm. Inu Yasha would more than likely chew your hand off.'  
  
She spared a glance at Sango, Miroku and Shippo. 'Do not say anything he is already as angry as he can manage right now and bothering him while he's like this will only fuel it and hinder our progress.' She made sure all of them could hear her but it was intended for Shippo mainly as the kit was looking so longingly, 'Little Fox make sure you do not go near Kagome while she is in this state it is not for you to interfere like that, do you understand? I know you're used to sleeping with her and you miss her severely but if you listen to me I will be able to bring her back sooner and safer than if you were to mess this up for me okay?' He nodded staring at his adopted mother who was so much more inexperienced than he was which he found amazingly funny.  
  
Kaori directed Shippo to his mat which was just above Inu Yasha and Kagome's making him happy that he could sleep so closely to them. He curled up and promptly dropped off. Sango and Miroku were placed at opposite ends of the cave. Sango was closer to the mouth of the cave with Akiko and Miroku was positioned closer to Kaori in the back of the cave. He looked back and found that there was seemingly no end to the cave. 'You are back here with me to help protect this end should any youkai be slumbering back there and Sango and Akiko are out towards the front a ways to protect from that end.' At his sour face she caught him grumbling about not trusting that queer pretty boy with Sango in his head. When he caught her staring at him he knew she had heard and blushed a million shades of red. 'Don't worry he doesn't think like that Miroku. If he were to fall in love with her it would still be her choice to make herself his. He would never force a woman to his bed and with a lovely woman such as Sango that goes twice as strict.'  
  
He let out a derisive snort. 'Yeah I can see that. A woman saying "no" to a face like that.' His face scowled as he relaxed on his mat. 'I would lose to any man like that. I have nothing to offer her-' His thoughts were abruptly cut off when Kaori put a mental bond on his mind.  
  
'Stop I refuse to listen to this.' He fell into a trance staring into her eyes. 'Sleep and think no more of this subject until I bring it up.' The words barely registered in his mind as darkness claimed him and he dreamed pleasant dreams of Sango and a future with him in it.  
  
Sango slid out of Akiko's hands. "Where do I sleep?" He smiled and took her arm again and led her to the front of the group and a little away. There were two mats. "I suppose you're sleeping with me?"  
  
His grin grew. "Not unless you want me to." Her face flushed red and he held up his hands laughing. "I was joking only kidding. I would never seriously mean something like that although I was sorely tempted with Kagome.." He grinned and she realized he was joking as before. "In any case, you and I are out here to make sure that no demons come in through this end. Is that fine with you?"  
  
She nodded and pulled off her armor and crawling under her blankets. "So how did you and Kaori end up talking Inu Yasha into taking you on with him? I just can't see him dong that at all especially on his own." She sighed. "Then again I could never see him wanting to be with Kagome and ALONE for so long and her actually wanting to go. Well her wanting to go is not that much of a stretch but him enforcing that? He has just been acting so strangely lately." She lay on her back but turned her face to him. She could see his main features thanks to the small light that reached them at their current position.  
  
"Well I don't know how much you know but it's obviously less than what I do so I'll tell you what I know okay?" She nodded burned that her friend had trusted these people over her. "And don't worry whatever I found out was because Kaori picked her brain before she could say anything."  
  
This soothed Sango's hurt feelings and he continued on. "Well she has the ability to travel even farther into the past than she is now. She is apparently in the time when Inu Yasha was a lot younger than he is now." He smirked at the mental image of him that Kaori had sent to him. "I can show you what he looked like then but I'd have to touch you does that bother you?" She shook her head that it didn't bother her.  
  
His hands touched her forehead and he concentrated on the picture of the tiny Inu Yasha nosing in Kagome's lap and then of him being tossed high in the air and of him and Kagome playing in the water bathing together. Sango's eyes widened as she saw them play in action but no sound. Their lips were moving and their faces were flushed with pleasure as they played. She saw as he ran off after giving her the flower. Kagome's face had radiated the love she felt for him that was so rarely shown now. Sango sighed happy for her friend. He pulled his hands away.  
  
He eyes were glassy when they opened and she thought of what she had just seen. "Beautiful wasn't it?" Akiko asked as he smoothed her hair away from her face. "Well any way you wouldn't believe that he is seventeen in that time huh?"  
  
Her mouth dropped, "Only seventeen? I thought he was much younger than that. His features made him look like he was around ten." She mused lightly. "Does Kagome know?"  
  
He nodded. "How do you think I know? Or rather how do you think Kaori knew? She took it from her mind... But he loves her then and he loves her now so that is what's important." He smiled at her. "But she is back there to help him in his time of need and I do believe that she will always be able to go back but he is upset with himself for not remembering her now. So he wants to be with her to make sure that he doesn't screw up that badly again. But in her thinking he didn't screw up at all because she loves him and she came up with marvelous excuses for him not to remember her, all of them logical by the way. But he did remember once he saw proof of them having been together but he felt it before that." He shrugged. "I just think it's sweet but then I am a hopeless romantic and I revel in being able to get people together." He sighed.  
  
Sango smiled at him. "Well that is a very good thing, as opposed to you being cynical which is so often in these days with the demons and destruction and everything." She reached out and patted his arm smiling.  
  
"Well do you want to know what she has done so far with him?" At Sango's nod he smiled to himself and told her of all the things she had done in the past. She gasped when she heard of Kagome taking out those neko youkai. "I know, it just doesn't sound like your Kagome ne?"  
  
"Yes that just doesn't sound like something that she would do. but then she is in love with him and now that she can do it.. I do believe that she just might enjoy being able to protect him." She laid on her back and watched as droplets of water dribbled off of a stalactite.  
  
"Well that isn't as unbelievable as some of the things she did just last week." He grinned.  
  
"You like to gossip don't you?" She smiled. "Well I would love to listen as long as you're willing to spill." She checked behind her to make sure that her boomerang was secured behind her and in easy reach should demons really come.  
  
"Yes I live to gossip." He grinned, then continued on. "Well she helped Inu Yasha back from him LOSING a battle with four youkai all by his lonesome. That was while his child-like self had given her the flower. And then after that they sat out and talked. When it was his time of the month she took him to her time to visit the sea and enjoy himself. They got to watch the dolphins and the seals. He kissed her while he was human and she was a hanyou. She got nervous and brought him back to shore. He didn't let her get dressed not remembering that she had taken off her clothes before she dipped into the sea. And then her grandpa saw her which absolutely mortified her-"  
  
"He saw her? And naked? Wait Kagome was in that state of undress with Inu Yasha? What did he say?" she got up on her elbows and faced him. 'Man this is just like a girls night with Kagome. No matter that they come so few and far in between. Is he gay?'  
  
"Well her grandfather didn't say much of anything just asked in his own way if they had been 'intimate' and she immediately denied him which of course she hasn't. But when they got back to their 'home' (as they like to term it), they stayed out and played then they shared a deep kiss. But what do you think that he would say having seen his lady love naked? He being the poor eloquent creature that you know him to be said nothing. But back to the kiss, poor Inu Yasha was so drugged up from that kiss that he didn't notice that the youkai that had beaten him up earlier were there again, come to finish him off so Kagome had to tell him." He giggled a bit and continued on. "He was rather upset that she didn't seem to be outwardly affected by his kiss so he decided to take out his anger on the demons while Kagome had to fight the smaller ones he took on the burly ones. Kagome used her miko powers in one of her swipes and killed one of them the other she tried to avoid hitting as she didn't want to kill him. Well as luck would have it, she ran into one of the burly demons who weren't fighting Inu Yasha and he held her still while the smaller demon landed a punch through her stomach. She fell down in her blood and Inu Yasha killed the demon that had a hold of her and knocked the smaller one down. He tried to revive her but he was knocked unconscious before he could by the younger demon." He took a deep breath and flopped onto his back. "Now that was something I just didn't want to see. It was so Romeo-Juliet like. I had to go heal them. I was careful to just bring Inu Yasha out of his pain and everything but leave him slightly unconscious. But with Kagome I took her completely out of her misery and took her to our house as we need her." He sighed and was quiet.  
  
Sango waited but he said nothing. She sat up but before she could say anything he turned over. "You need to sleep we will be getting up early of the morning Inu Yasha isn't in the forgiving mood." Sango glared but she lay back down and slept.  
  
Kagome woke up to see Little Inu Yasha hovering over her. Once her eyes opened his face split into a big grin. "You're back and so soon. I wasn't expecting you for a while yet." She smiled back at him and sat up. He put his little arms around her waist and looked up into her eyes happily. "I am so glad you're back."  
  
She smiled down at him. "So it seems like you found your way back alright." She stood up and brought him with her as he hadn't let go of her. She tapped his nose as she laughed at him. "I came back for a reason dear. Do you wish to come with me?" She waked to the front of the cave. She could hear him following her. "So you are coming?"  
  
"Yes I want to go. I don't want you to go alone. I want to be with you when you leave... just where are we going anyway?" He smiled and took her hand. "Do you want to take any of the crystals to look at?" She shook her head and gestured for him to remove the rock. He complied and she walked through holding onto his hand.  
  
He looked up at the barren trees. 'Winter will be on soon. I wonder where it is that Kagome wishes to take us.' He looked up to her. Her face was set in determination for whatever task it was that was ahead of her. He tugged on her hand and rubbed his face against her arm trying to comfort her. He was satisfied with his actions when she smiled down at him and the worry in her eyes left. He strung her arm across his shoulder but he didn't let go of her hand. 'Her hands are still so soft.' He watched her through hooded eyes as she transformed into her hanyou state. 'What is it like for her not to be one way all the time. it must be so frustrating. I know I wouldn't like it, it is just so hard to be a human and I know that I don't like it being one once a month... I can't imagine what it would be like to be that way every day.' "Hey Kagome." She looked down at him again. "I was just thinking. What is it like for you to become a human everyday? Have you always been this way?"  
  
She shook her head. "No, I was originally human and then I was cursed.. well blessed I should say because I get to see you and I've always wondered what it would be like to have this.. body and I guess I know now ne?" She smiled again and hugged him into her side.  
  
"But how did it happen to you?" He tightened his grip on her hand. 'Who would curse his Kagome? She was too nice for anyone to curse... wasn't she?' His little claws pricked into her skin but did nothing as she was hanyou now. He got mad at his thoughts and reprimanded himself. 'Of course she's nice you baka she does everything she can for you and that was so mean of you to think that of her. I bet she has friends everywhere and that it was some evil jerk who did it to her... Yeah that'd it.'  
  
"Well that is something that I am just not too sure of but. it happened when I was struck with a poisoned fang... I turned full demon for just one day one whole day and then of the next morning I was human again." She smiled wistfully. "You were there to help me through that and that night I changed into a hanyou. And that has been the way that it happens for the longest time. I know that it has only been around a month but... It seems like so much longer. And the long and short of it is that I am now as you see me and on the new moon when you turn human nothing happens to me as I am human during the day I don't know what might happen any other day for all I know I could turn full demon on the first night of the full moon.. Now I would consider that appropriate payment for what I go through everyday." She smiled at him. "But the reason I was sent here specifically was so that I could destroy a spell that was created in this time. All I have to do is kill the creator and then I will... well I don't really know." She picked him up and cradled him in her arms. 'I just want to be near you for the time being. I don't know why this feeling of melancholy has been set upon me but it is there. And it is wearing me thin already I need some form of comfort.' She nuzzled her head on top of his small one. He took the hint and tucked himself more firmly beneath her chin and against her neck.  
  
She laughed as his nose tickled her neck when he sniffed at her. "So where are we going? Do you know?" She hugged him tightly to her. "So this whole time that you've been coming here you were supposed to be finding a spell to destroy?"  
  
"No I came here before this whole spell deal but I am not sure where I am going." She walked on until her vision wavered. She could see a darkened room. Inu Yasha was hovering above her and looking down at her sadly. She wanted to lift her arm and touch his face to erase the worry in his eyes when his face got closer to hers and he nudged aside the hair in her eyes with his nose and mouth. She felt his breath on her face as he moved. He pressed a small kiss to her lips and tasted them quickly before he tucked her tightly to his side as he slept.  
  
Her vision wavered again and she noticed that she was now on her back and the little Inu Yasha was hovering over her now. He brushed her hair out of her face. "Are you okay?" His eyes were wide with worry for her. "You just fell down suddenly and you paled and...." He rested his head upon her chest and breathed in her scent. "I had thought you had died or that you were going to.. you were just so pale..." He rubbed his head against her again roughly to make sure that she was really there and not going to leave.  
  
"I.. I just had a vision nothing major. I'm okay don't worry." She ran her hand through his hair and smiled to herself. He crawled up her body and lay down upon her. His legs barely reached her knees and His head was beneath her chin. He propped himself up on his elbows on her shoulders. He looked into her eyes and frowned at her. "Don't worry. I'll be okay its nothing major." She ran her hand over his face and he leaned into her touch.  
  
"But you fell down so suddenly. It was quite the shock." He took her hand away from his face and peered into her eyes. "What did you envision?" He pulled himself up and lay his forehead on her cheek. He nuzzled her slightly to keep reassuring himself that she was okay.  
  
"It was of you in the future." She leaned into his face and sighed. She lifted one of her hands and cupped his cheek. "Would you like to stay for the night or do you want to move on?" He placed his hand on her shoulders and pushed himself up. "You know you're barely bigger than Shippo." She smiled. "He is a little bit shorter than you are but he is a fox demon so that is understandable. Plus he seems to be really young but since I found out you were so old I wonder about him." She ran her hand through his long locks.  
  
"He is probably younger than you are. I would figure. Well in any case I can go farther in the night so we can go and sleep by day if you like." He sat up on her stomach taking his claws he scratched her tummy making her laugh and roll over knocking him off. He sat up and looked at her oddly. "What's wrong with you?" He shook the leaves out of his hair.  
  
"It tickled." She smiled at him and pulled some of the leaves out of his hair. "Sorry I didn't mean to knock you off like that." He looked at her from under his bangs. "What? I'm not exactly stern and tough you know." She smiled at him and kissed his cheek. Standing up she dusted off her clothes which were mainly covered by wet leaves and mud. "Maybe taking that vision wasn't the best of ideas."  
  
He laughed at her and pushed her playfully. "Lets go you're taking forever." He straightened up his clothes which had gotten rumpled from his fall and from messing around with Kagome. She fell back down laughing so hard. "What's so funny Kagome?" He peered into her face wondering if she was possessed.  
  
"Nothing-" She gasped in air. "You just sounded a lot like yourself and I know that sounds utterly ridiculous but..." She started laughing again as she stood up and proceeded to dust herself off again. "Sorry... I'll try to contain myself next time." She smiled at him. He just raised an eyebrow and took her hand again.  
  
"So which way are we headed?" He asked as he dismissed her earlier behavior. His amber eyes scanned the trees around them. It was really quiet for some reason.. 'Shouldn't bats or other nocturnal creatures be scattering about around now? Maybe an owl?' Something was off and it worried him but Kagome seemed oblivious to it and he didn't want to worry her so he kept quiet.  
  
"I'm not entirely sure where we're headed but I know what we have to do and that is enough for now. I'm certain that we can figure it out before long.. It shouldn't be too hard.." She squeezed his hand but didn't pick him up afraid that she might zone out like that again.  
  
Inu Yasha saw a purple haze at the edge of his vision and pulled frantically at Kagome's arm. "What is going on Kagome? Do you see it too?"  
  
She nodded absently and ran her thumb over the back of his hand to soothe him. He let go of her hand and held onto her waist just in case she should fall again. A beautiful lady appeared before them her brown hair hung loosely down her back and her brown eyes changed colors in the moonlight from green to brown and back again. The eyes were framed by a heart shaped face and from her bright red lips came a sweet alto voice making him want to sleep. He definitely did not like this lady. If she had this affect on him.. then just imagine what she was doing to Kagome. "Kagome you need to go toward the rising sun that is the way to get to the village and I will come again when you will need to move." The lady moved closer to Kagome her arms out stretched.  
  
Inu Yasha bared his fangs at her and growled menacingly. Tightening his grip on Kagome he edged back away from what he perceived as a threat. The lady smiled at him and shook her head. "Even this young you don't trust me." Her hand reached out for him slowly. When he bared his fangs again she thought better of it and retracted her hand.  
  
Inu Yasha looked up into Kagome's face. She smiled down at him. "This is Kaori. She doesn't mean any harm. She's the one who wants me to go on this venture so don't worry about it ne?" Her hand rubbed one of hid ears affectionately. Still not trusting the woman in front of him he glared until she disappeared then he gave into the comforting feel of Kagome's cool hands on his ears.  
  
"Well I suppose we should do as she asks.. What do you think Inu Yasha?" She sat upon the ground bringing her face level with his.  
  
"If it's what you want Kagome, I'll go with you." His hands pushed down on her shoulders and she lay back like he wanted. He curled up on her chest. "Get some sleep first though. As we have to go towards the rising sun and it's not even up yet." His eyes closed and he felt her heartbeat under his cheek. He smiled absently when his weariness caught up with him, dully noting that the eerie feeling had only increased since the odd lady's visit.  
  
Just as Akiko had said, Inu Yasha wasn't in a forgiving mood and they were woken up before the sun could even ponder getting up. Sango grumbled and grouched as she rolled up her mat and jammed it into the pack that Akiko had brought. He folded up his and gently laid his in as well. "Did you sleep well Sango?" He asked politely.  
  
"Did my best to sleep but.. Didn't exactly work out as I planned." She sighed and rubbed her tailbone. "I think I slept on a rock or something." Akiko grimaced as he heard the unmistakable sounds of a back popping.  
  
"You slept on the floor and it is a rock. Here let me help you." He pulled up the back of her shirt. She glared at him over her shoulder. "Its nothing perverted I'm going to help you. You have bruises all over your back and I figure it must be damned uncomfortable." He lightly rubbed circles in her back and concentrated.  
  
Sango had never felt anything so good in her entire life. A warm wave rolled through her body starting from his fingers and moving fast through the rest of her. It relaxed all her muscles and her joints. She sighed in ecstasy. Miroku ran over at that instant to 'wake' Sango up. He stopped dead when he saw that Akiko had his hands on Sango's bare back. He took his staff and hit the guy in the head... Hard. He watched in pure satisfaction as the queer pretty boy went down like a rock.  
  
Sango came out of her daze when she felt his hands leave her back rather abruptly. "What? Miroku?" She asked dumbfounded when she was face-to-face with an extremely angry houshi. "What did you do?" She asked when she saw that Akiko was on the floor. He had his head in his hands. "You jerk Miroku! Why did you hit him? He wasn't doing anything."  
  
"Like Hell he wasn't! Sango he had his hands on your bare skin and you call that nothing?" He fumed then she turned and he saw her bare back making his jaw drop open in surprise. The guy on the floor forgotten he tapped her on her shoulder. "Sango? Where did your scar go? The one that Kohaku gave you." He lightly touched her back where it had been.  
  
His cold fingers were a shock from Akiko's warm ones and she jerked upright. "What do you mean where did it go?" She fingered her back but didn't feel the marred flesh that had resided there for the longest of times it seemed. She looked to Akiko. "Did you do that?"  
  
He nodded and ran outside to be violently ill. 'It happens every fricking time I try to help... I end up spilling my lunch all over the floor.' He felt a hand on the back of his neck. "I'm sorry Sango." He said quietly as he wiped his mouth off. He coughed lightly and then he felt better.  
  
"What have you to be sorry for? What you did for me.. Thank you. I really appreciate it." She smiled at him. He looked down at her quietly. Hit by a spontaneous idea, she threw her arms around him and hugged him tightly.  
  
Miroku's hand clenched into a fist as he watched her throw her arms around Akiko. 'Jealousy does not suit you, dear.' Kaori's voice rang in his head. He sighed and let the sadness that was creeping just under his anger and jealousies overcome him. 'Now we'll have none of that. Cheer up he will not take her from you.'  
  
'Its not that he won't its that he can.' He grumbled. 'And I've been keeping myself in check too lately. I haven't groped her in days almost weeks and now she is going to want to go off with this. pretty boy.. He-' Miroku squashed his thoughts and went back into the cave. He took up his matt and put it into Kaori's bag. Inu Yasha had already taken care of his and Kagome's mats and was cradling her in his lap. He poured some water down her throat so that her body didn't give out on this end of her world.  
  
Miroku wanted to yell at the injustice of it all. 'Inu Yasha never showed Kagome that he loved her, never told her not once...' Then he remembered and soured. 'But he saved her life more times than you could count among other things. And yet its obvious that Kagome loves him no matter what he should choose to do.. What did I do wrong? I do believe that I complimented her enough and I have 'admired' her body don't girls usually like that kind of stuff?'  
  
'Yes they do but you know as well as I do that Sango is not every girl and just so you know Sango does love you. She would never tell you as she doesn't want to face it herself but she does. You probably don't find this very reassuring coming from me as you know that Sango doesn't seem to like me and she hasn't known me for very long so of course you might not want to believe me but just remember that, even if you don't believe it, that doesn't mean it's not true.' Kaori said. He was oddly comforted by her words and thanked her as he shouldered one of her packs.  
  
Shippo watched dully as Kagome was picked up by Inu Yasha once he had gotten done with the mats that they had slept on. 'Oh Kagome I want you back! You promised that you would let me come with you in a few days.. and then.. and then I don't get to talk with her or touch her as she is doing something "important".' He wanted her back. He crawled onto Inu Yasha's shoulder and got as close as he could to his adopted mother.  
  
They traveled on through the day as the land got progressively thicker and untamed Inu Yasha quickened their pace. "How much longer do we have Inu Yasha?" Kaori asked tired of looking into Miroku's head. There were just some things that could be done with the body that she just did not want to know or to have seen but it was too late and she didn't want to risk any more of 'those' types of thoughts. She shuddered slightly and tried to will away the mental image but failed horribly.  
  
He groaned. 'Would the woman never shut up? Damn not even Kagome talked this much it was blasted irritating...' He glared over his shoulder as she asked in his head this time. "I fucking told you to stay out of my head did I not? Besides we've been in his territory for about an hour and its getting dark outside although you can't tell it through the denseness of the leaves..." He looked down at Kagome. "If you want to know when it is definitely night just look at her and you'll know okay?" He nodded toward Kagome. "We still have a little ways to go and I don't expect it to be an easy find as its about like that 'Atlantis' place that Kagome talked about once..." He adjusted the girl in his arms as he continued on and quickened his pace to keep Kaori from being able to talk. He shielded his thoughts just in case, so that she wouldn't be allowed in and his wouldn't be allowed out. Keeping his eyes straight ahead, so that he could pretend that everyone wasn't staring at him, he began to relax a little as he still had to keep his guard up for any threats or attacks that Sesshomaru might have laid out for them or any other trespasser.  
  
Sure enough there were traps but nothing that they couldn't handle. It started out with arrows flying out from dense patches in the trees, aimed at the legs to disable humans from moving. Inu Yasha had thankfully tested before they had gone into that little patch of the road certain that something was in front of them. He had thrown a rock in front of him and if he'd have taken another step further an arrow would've been lodged in his thigh. He sighed they were going to have to find another way through....  
  
Kagome awoke to the rising sun, she tried to take in a deep breath but something was constricting her chest.. She looked down and saw amber eyes peering at her through a veil of silvery-white hair. "You know you take forever to wake up." He commented lightly as he sat up and scratched his belly, stretching. She sat up as well dumping him into her lap as she scratched her head. "Well do you want breakfast or do you want to go on with the journey?" He asked as he stood up and worked the kinks out of his small legs. She smiled at him.  
  
"Well let's see... I think my stomach is calling out louder than anything so lets go find something to munch on ne?" She dusted off her pants and wiped her backside. The parts of her body that had been in contact with the ground all night had mud caked all over whereas the parts that had only recently met the ground thanks to her tail were slightly damp but not really muddy. She looked at Inu Yasha, his clothes were completely clean from him laying on her for the night.  
  
They hunted up some breakfast and when their hunger was sated they moved off just as Kaori had said. Towards the rising of the sun. Inu Yasha chatted merrily about his life with his family before they had been mercilessly and horribly killed.  
  
"Sesshomaru would never play with me but he always seemed to like to teach me new words. I found out later that he had done this just so that I would use them in my tutor's presence and get reprimanded." He paused and looked at her thoughtfully. "But after a while I figured this out so I stopped talking with him. It fixed the problem but I find that I use them still because I was so used to learning them." He stopped for a while contemplating his life and how far it had gone. "Any way. My mom was always with me and my dad loved me but I wasn't old enough to really learn anything of value. Or at least that was his reasoning." His face drew together in sorrow. "Just another year and I would've been able to go on those special hunts that he had taken Sesshomaru on so many times." He mused aloud.  
  
"Well what did you and your mother do?" Kagome asked taking his hand and squeezing it lightly. He looked up to her and smiled at her but she could see the sadness in his eyes hiding just behind the smile.  
  
"We played a lot. She would hide things for me to find. I would sniff them and then she would run off and hide them somewhere good so that it would be hard for me to find it." He smiled at the fond memories for a moment then continued on. "She was smart and passed off whatever it happened to be off to other people to hide, then she would come back and sit down. Then she would tell me to wait until she was ready for me to go. Once she did, I was off as fast as I could go and I always found it. Some times took longer than others but it was always fun." He looked off into the trees surrounding them. "We would always take baths together because no one really wanted to take care of me but her so we were alone in the castle together at least until father came home to us at night." He sighed wistfully remembering times passed.  
  
When he was quiet for a long time, Kagome offered information on her family thinking that he didn't want to talk anymore of his family. That it might've gotten too stressful. "My dad died when I was really young. I think I was around nine or ten at the time. He was going to work and he got into a big wreck with a drunk driver. He was in the hospital in critical condition for a few months before he died. Mom didn't let us go to him because he was in such bad shape."  
  
Inu Yasha stayed silent for a while longer then his voice came out low and soft. "What is a hospital? I've never heard of one Kagome." He looked up at her his eyes slightly red from holding in the tears that had wanted to spill.  
  
"It is a place in my time where we take sick people and use science and technology to make people better so that they can get back to their lives sooner." She looked ahead of them, when Inu Yasha stumbled she caught him and carried him for quite a ways. He napped in her arms off and on until the evening came on then his nose wiggled tickling her throat and she laughed despite herself.  
  
"Its almost night.. You're going to change soon. Your scent changes just before the sun sets so that's how I knew." He said absently as he clambered down from her arms. He sighed. "My father for the most part loved my mother otherwise they would've never gotten mated as they did. When he would come home at night he would talk with me of the games that my mother played with me and tell me what a good job I did or if I didn't cuss the tutor during the day. He would then give me some menial little gift and send me on my way so that he could have 'alone' time with mother." He sighed again.  
  
"Inu Yasha." She said simply and picked him up again to hug him. He allowed her to for a while then had her put him down. "I am so sorry that I couldn't stop that from happening to you... If I could have... I would." She sighed herself and kept walking. She felt her body change as she felt Inu Yasha slip his hand into hers just before it happened.  
  
"That night my father was supposed to come. He told me he had a marvelous surprise for me and so mother and I stayed in the room... We heard the screams.. It was awful and then the next thing I know demons are running into our room and trying to take my mother away from me... And then she shoved me out the window and you know from there..." He sighed again.  
  
Kagome felt her heart go out to him. 'No child should have to go through what he did.' She stopped and pulled him close to herself. "I don't need you to pity me." He said.  
  
She started to cry silently as she held him tighter. "I don't pity you Inu Yasha... I would never do that." She said quietly. His arms crept around her neck and held her to him. He nodded sorry that he would have said something so mean to her. Her hands stroked through his hair and she let him go. "Well let's go. We still have quite a ways to go."  
  
Akiko and Kaori sat down in the little glade that was a seemingly safe zone from attacks. Inu Yasha looked at them as they were distanced so much from the group. He got up leaving Kagome laying down in front of the monk, the demon-exterminator and the kit. He marched over to them as if he were preparing for battle.  
  
Kaori shot Akiko a dry look out of the corner of her eye. 'And he means to do what by looking like that?' She asked him. Her hair blew around in the night air as she waited on the hanyou to get all the way over to her.  
  
"Alright you." He said looking at Kaori. "You like to talk so much I want you to tell me why you put Kagome in that comatose state that she's in now." He glared at them. When they looked at him like he was stupid he took his fist and slammed it into the ground leaving an impressive hole. "I mean NOW!" He roared.  
  
"Would you get a little louder please? I don't think your brother heard you quite clearly." Akiko said glaring at him for the threat that Inu Yasha had just given them.  
  
"If I knew what this was all about then I wouldn't have to now would I?" He said still peeved.  
  
"Okay we sent Kagome back into your past to destroy a spell-" Kaori was cut off by the impatient hanyou.  
  
"I know that much already. What I want to know is why? Why in the Hell are you using Kagome like this? Is it because you knew you could?" His hands clenched and unclenched themselves unconsciously in his pants leg.  
  
Akiko put his hand over Kaori's mouth before she could spit out the lie that he knew was lurking just beneath the surface. "Kaori and I haven't always been brother sister. At one time we were lovers and the spell manipulated that to where we lost what was the most important to us... so we cannot be together like we used to because of this. We have been wandering around this world for years upon years... Trying to find someone who could go back and fix the horrendous mistake that we made but we refuse to let them make the same mistake we did so... That is why we insist upon traveling with you so that this doesn't screw up your love life or the rest of it for that matter." He looked at the rest of the group then back to Inu Yasha. "All of our family was killed until it was only us left. So our time if we were to have been normal would have ended long, long ago."  
  
He got up and looked down at Inu Yasha. "What does the spell do? What is it that you want it destroyed so badly."  
  
"That is something that you will not find out from me." He gave a pointed look to Kaori. "Nor will she tell you. All you needed to know was 'why' you said. Now you have the why so leave well enough alone." He went to sit by Sango and the rest of the group. Taking Kagome's hand he stroked the back of it with his thumb. He sighed and talked with her in her mind. 'Kagome?'  
  
'You and Kaori were lovers?' She asked.  
  
'Yes. And that is what we needed you to do for us is to fix it.' Akiko said. He ran his free hand through his hair messing it slightly.  
  
'I will I promise... I want my Inu Yasha near where is he?' She asked. Her voice had gotten quiet in his head. He looked over to the hanyou. "Hey Inu Yasha! Kagome wants you. She said so herself."  
  
Inu Yasha turned around and ran over to her. He peered into her face. "When did she wake up? How come I didn't hear her?" He asked as he ran a hand over her face.  
  
"She didn't wake up." Inu Yasha looked at Akiko like he was the biggest moron he had ever seen. "She told me in her head. As she still has some conscious part of her here she was able to converse a bit and she asked for you." Akiko explained.  
  
Sango looked at him incredulous. "How many other surprises do you have up your sleeves?" she asked. "How is it that you can do that?" Her natural curiosity was piqued and she had to have answers.  
  
"Well it has something to do with me being able to heal people but not too much. It stems from something I picked up off of Kaori really and it goes with my healing abilities until I created something new." Akiko touched Inu Yasha's shoulder and he could hear Kagome in his head.  
  
'Don't think too badly of them Inu Yasha. You wanted your dead miko too so don't say anything mean to them.' Kagome said her voice was weak and tired in his head.  
  
'Kagome you know that I don't want her any more. I was looking for you and mistook her for you. I've apologized what more do you want me to do?' He asked rubbing a hand over his eyes to calm down. 'What more can I do for you? Tell me.'  
  
'Give me a bath. I feel dirty.' He could hear the humor in her voice.  
  
'Seriously Kagome you know what I mean.' He sighed. 'If it makes you feel better I'll get you a bath tomorrow okay?'  
  
'Yes, that's fine but I just don't want you to be mad at them... I will return to you. I promise. I will always return.' Her voice faded out of his head until he knew she was gone for the time being.  
  
"How did you do that? How did you get her to talk with me." Inu Yasha asked his face slack in shock that she had actually been able to talk with him. He took her into his arms. 'She thinks I still want Kikyou... How could she think that?'  
  
"Well I am sorry for being privy to your internal conflict there but you blared it out again." Kaori said. "She thinks that you still want the corpse as you never corrected her assumptions although she doesn't mention it to you, she still doesn't think that you see her as she is. The only part of you that she thinks does that is with her now in the past before he met Kikyou." She turned her head to the side to regard him from her hooded eyes. She was still sore that Akiko decided to tell them the truth. 'Well it wasn't everyone it was only Inu Yasha but he may tell Miroku or Sango and then we won't be able to help them get together... Oh the things I do to help people along.'  
  
Akiko looked at her having caught her thoughts. "Listen, it won't work that way. I have a plan and it was best that we have done that and you know it too." He went over to her and put his arms around her shoulders. "We can have a semblance of hope as long as Kagome is there and can do this for us. That was the deal remember?" He stroked her hair and hugged her. "Now calm down and be happy again." He smiled at her and moved back over to the others. She followed reluctantly and sat down next to him.  
  
Miroku looked at the beautiful pair as they talked with Inu Yasha. He observed the change in his attitude after their little chat. He watched as strange emotions chased themselves across the hanyou's face. Relief to confusion and stress and worry as he finished whatever he had said to Kagome. He looked over at Sango. She hadn't said much as she was just petting her cat and playing with her tail. Thinking of tails his eyes roamed to Kagome's backside where her tail resided.  
  
He watched as her tail lay lifeless in the dirt. Just as her body would be should her chest not be rising and falling as it were. He watched as her chest expanded and contracted with each intake and release of breath. Next thing he knew the ground was saying 'hi' to his face and there was a severe throbbing in the back of his head. Pulling himself up to a sitting position, he looked pointedly at Sango. "What in all that's Holy was that for? I didn't do anything that time!"  
  
"You were staring at Kagome in a lewd way and it was rather disheartening to watch." She glared at him. "Besides would you rather Inu Yasha catch you looking at her like that? Or me?" She pointed out. He thought of all the things the hanyou had promised to do to him should he ever touch Kagome and then saw them actually being carried out and he much preferred Sango to the raging beast any day.  
  
"I was merely watching her breathe nothing more nothing less. There was not a perverted thought in my head." He declared which was met with a dry snort. "I can to look upon a beautiful woman and not think about her bearing my children."  
  
"You have yet to prove that." She said irately.  
  
"I said I could not that I would or will." He was cross. "And when have I asked you? That proves that I can think of other things." He pointed out.  
  
For a second he thought he saw hurt on her face before it was empty and devoid of all emotion. "Yes... I suppose you can think of other things." With that she rose up to her feet and went to her mat to go to sleep.  
  
"Oh that was a bad move there monk." Akiko said touching his leg so that he could talk inside Miroku's head. 'That was just what you shouldn't have said. She loved you but was afraid that you didn't find her any more appealing than a two dollar hoe.' Miroku looked into the man's deep green eyes. 'You should go apologize and maybe say that you weren't thinking when you said those things you did. It would make a lot of things better.'  
  
Miroku glared at him. He knew it was good advice to go and apologize but he just really disliked the man next to him. "I don't feel like it. If I needed or wanted your advice I would have asked for it."  
  
'You're being stubborn Miroku and you know it.' Kaori sounded in his head. 'But I know that you dislike taking advice from Akiko so you may do it later I suppose... The saying is better late than never ne?' She stood up and shook out her skirts. 'Make friends with him please Miroku... He isn't a very bad person once you get to know him.'  
  
'You're family, its your duty to say things like that. I prefer to form my own opinion of people and he rubs me the wrong way.' Miroku declared to her.  
  
'I didn't know he got so physical with the men but I guess I have to take your word for it eh Miroku?' He heard her laugh inside his head. He looked over to her only to see that her face was completely straight and she was talking heatedly with Inu Yasha over something. He watched as she stormed away and disappeared into the trees.  
  
Inu Yasha stood up and walked towards Kagome. "Runt you're coming with me." He said to Shippo. The poor fox looked at the hanyou and frowned. "What?"  
  
"Can you not hear? You're coming with me. I won't be gone too long Akiko. Kagome asked me to give her a bath." He explained quickly then hauling up the girl he made for the forest where Kaori had gone off to. Shippo hesitantly followed after Inu Yasha not too certain of why he wanted him there.  
  
Inu Yasha found Kaori in the stream that she had said was near-by. He stripped Kagome down to the bare essentials and waded into the water. Shippo sat on the bank. "Um Inu Yasha... What am I supposed to do?" He shifted from one foot to the other.  
  
"Just watch out for that monk... or any other type of threat got it?" He held Kagome's head above water while Kaori scrubbed it to get rid of the dirt. To his credit he didn't stare at her while her body was being scrubbed clean.  
  
Kaori looked at him. "She's done... I would suggest that when she comes back that you do your best to show her that you love her." Kaori held her while he quickly picked up a towel off of the bank. He exchanged cargo with Kaori and she wrapped the towel around her friend's soaking body while Inu Yasha held her above the water. Once she was done he said a gruff thanks and waited on her to get dressed.  
  
Once Kaori was dressed he answered her. "I won't lie to her so I don't see the point" He marched forward but noticed the subtle shift in Kagome... 'Had she heard him?' He thought about it... 'Oh man people do hear better when they're asleep... Well its just as good now so that I can be prepared for her rejection... or whatever...' He wasn't even sure of what he was thinking.  
  
Authors Note: Well I only have 9 reviews so far and as a forewarning that maybe this next chapter or the chapter after this one is going to be boosting the rating. I like to read and write lemons they're fun, but I will warn you before you read them so that you can avoid them if you don't like that kind of thing. When I get there that is if you want to still read my fic once you get there, as you may change your mind on if you like it or not as I may get boring. Well if you like my fic review if you don't like my fic review it's a win-win situation either way. But if you didn't like my fic I want a why to go along with that please. Oh and I really like the reviews I got from everyone who reviewed I read them and you special people know who you are and I love you all! *sends out hugs to everyone who read and reviewed* But no one reviewed the chapters separately like I suggested... *sigh* 


	5. Honesty Is Always the Best Policy

Chapter 5: Honesty Is Always the Best Policy  
  
Inu Yasha: Hey Woman! I don't see much of me down there!  
  
Danielle: that is because I want to get a little more into Sango and Miroku and maybe a little bit of Akiko and Kaori... Stingy hanyou...  
  
Inu Yasha: I heard that! And I have a right to be stingy! After all who is the show named for huh? ME that's who.  
  
Miroku: Would you be quiet? I want to see what genius idea Danie-sama has in store for me... and the rest of you. *smiles*  
  
Danielle: Why thank you Miroku. See Inu Yasha? There are other people who want to see what I am going to do with those four... So stuff it. You're getting to carry Kagome around and you already know that I love it when you two get together so... Oh the disclaimer! How could I have forgotten? *mutters under breath* I do not own the stingy little beast that keeps on annoying me. *holds hand over Inu Yasha's mouth to keep him from answering*  
  
Miroku looked at where Sango lay sleeping. He felt sorry for saying the mean things that he did, but his temper had gotten the better of him. Akiko had strangely enough disappeared right after Inu Yasha and Kaori had taken Kagome into the woods. He sighed as he moved closer to her.  
  
Sango could hear the houshi as he moved closer. Habit more than willpower took over as she brought her boomerang around and clocked him a good one over his head. Once she had realized what she had done, she smiled. It was nothing short of what that ass deserved she thought. After a short while he sat up clutching his aching head. "What was that for? I didn't do anything to you?"  
  
Sango shrugged. "Habit." Miroku bit down on the retort that was just begging to be let out. Instead he took a few calming breaths to prepare for his apology. "What do you want houshi?"  
  
'So she's still upset over the whole issue...' (A/N: Gee you think?) He cleared his throat. "Sango, I am sorry for what I said earlier. It was unwarranted and cruel of me to have said that. I didn't mean it at all and I want you to know that if you want me to I could envision you in some of my fantasies." He smiled at her trying to lighten up her mood.  
  
When she just sat there staring at him, he got a little flustered. 'Okay I'll take that as a no. Lets see...' He scooted closer to her and hugged her. "Sango I am really sorry for what I said. If you want to stay mad at me you have every right to and I won't blame you for it." Giving her a tight squeeze, he released her and went to the luggage for the mats.  
  
The material wasn't too soft, it scraped at his fingers but he supposed it had to be that way to keep the person from sliding around on the ground or to keep them from rolling around too much. Miroku brought his mat over towards the fire and sat with his head resting on his knees.  
  
'Stupid little- He's doing that on purpose and you know it Sango!' She told herself. 'He wants you to feel sorry for him so you can forgive him for hurting your feelings- Wait! I wasn't supposed to act like I cared! Ugh this is perfect! Now his overtly large ego will just get bigger because I acted like it mattered to me and he will think- He would think that I WANTED to bear his child! Ugh this is really a gem of a moment.' Sango glowered at him. "You're forgiven." She muttered as she rolled over on her mat and feigned sleep.  
  
Sesshomaru sat down at the base of a tree. Rin looked at his lap then to the place where Jaken was resting. The way she saw it, it was either sleep with the annoying toad who hated her or risk Fluffy-sama getting mad at her by her sleeping in his lap... But Fluffy-sama didn't hate her so he was the lesser of the two evils.  
  
She crept closer to him. 'He knows I'm here... So why hasn't he said anything?' Looking at his closed eyes, she took another cautious step forward. When he still didn't register any thing that would say that he knew she was there, she crawled into his lap and rested her head on his knee.  
  
Jaken glared at the girl. 'Any moment now and Sesshomaru-sama will shove her out of his lap.' He watched and waited only to see that Sesshomaru kept his eyes shut and his tail curled around to cover the sneaking Rin. Jaken's jaw dropped. 'Why the forward little brat is getting to sleep in the master's lap! He never treated me half so well as he treats that little pest of a child.' He fumed as he lay on the cold ground. (A/N: aw does anyone else feel sorry for Jaken?)  
  
One of the servants from the castle came running to them. Sesshomaru's eyes opened with the intrusion. 'He was quieter than that little brat and yet the master opens his eyes to notice him and not her?' He glowered, his mood growing darker by the minute.  
  
"Lord Sesshomaru," The young servant said after panting for a moment. "There are wanderers coming towards the castle Lord Sesshomaru." He knelt in front of the demon lord.  
  
"How many were there?" Sesshomaru's cool voice asked. Rin looked up at the lord's calm face as did the servant. "Come on, how many were there? Do not make me ask another time, you will not like the results."  
  
"T-there was eight total my lord." He trembled knowing his master's temper.  
  
Sesshomaru thought on that for a while. 'Eight? It can't be Inu Yasha can it? Last time I checked he had six total... that fox child, the monk, that exterminator and her pet, his mate and himself... did he take on new members of his odd little pack? And what in all the blue blazes is he doing coming onto my property?' Unknown to him his face had gotten even more emotionless and was currently scaring the jeepers out of the poor servant. "You may go." He barked out quickly.  
  
The servant didn't waste any time as he scrambled back towards the castle. Rin looked up at Sesshomaru as he stood up and shook his clothes free of dirt. "Where is Sesshomaru-sama taking Rin and Jaken?" Rin asked as she skipped ahead.  
  
"I am not taking you two any where. Rin you are to stay with Jaken as I go to see to the intruders." He gave a pointed look at Jaken as he said, "And I had better find you here when I return." He remembered the last time that Jaken had 'watched' Rin. She had supposedly run off when Jaken wasn't looking. Sesshomaru had found her hog-tied in the nearest village. Jaken had better have learned his lesson, he thought.  
  
"But Lord Sesshomaru..." Jaken swallowed whatever it was that he had intended to say as Sesshomaru gave him a pointed stare that spoke volumes. He turned and Rin watched as he disappeared from view. His hair blew out behind him with his perfect turn. As he strode off Jaken sent her a purely malevolent glare.  
  
"Jaken? Where has Sesshomaru-sama gone?" Rin sat down on the dirt. She looked into the sky as the moon was rising high above her head.  
  
"Isn't it obvious you little twit? He went to go find the intruders." Jaken spat as he paced the dirt. Rin smiled as she played with her kimono. "And what is so funny human?"  
  
"Nothing. Rin just can't wait until Sesshomaru comes back to Jaken and Rin." She picked at the grass under her feet. Her brown eyes took in the little green toad-like demon. His staff that resided on his shoulder wiggled around as he got more frustrated at the staring girl. Before he could blow his stack Rin took a strand of her black hair and wound it around her fingers. She looked to the stars. "Aren't they pretty Jaken?" She asked idly as she took out her small pony-tail.  
  
"Do I think what are pretty?" He asked irritated. His yellow eyes pierced through the darkness to glower at her. She was staring up at the sky so he looked and blew out a breath. There were scatterings of the stars all above them and even though they were pretty he wasn't much on them. "You stupid twit go to sleep and wait for Lord Sesshomaru to come back. Idiot human going to get her head lobbed off one day by some demon." He said under his breath.  
  
Rin heard but she decided not to say anything as she ran her hands through her hair. "Jaken... I know that you don't like me because I'm a human but why?" She took the ribbon that held her hair and wound it around her wrist. Jaken ignored her question and huffed out an annoyed breath. Rin sighed and looked at the demon. "Would Jaken like it if Rin left?" She asked quietly.  
  
"I would love it should you leave Rin but Sesshomaru would kill me should you do so. He would think it was my fault." Jaken grumbled. Rin nodded and lay down like he had asked. Jaken fiddled with his brown cap then rested back against a tree to sleep until the Lord returned.  
  
Inu Yasha came back with Kagome wet in his arms. He looked to the fire where Miroku was currently huddled up and then to Sango and Kirara where they lay far away from the fire's heat and light. Deciding that now was not the time to ask, he sauntered over and gathered up his and Kagome's stuff. "We're leaving. I hope you had a nice sleep because someone is going to be here soon and we have got to go. I don't feel like fighting with Kagome in the vulnerable state she's in." He threw his stuff into a pack and shouldered it. He looked to where he had set Kagome and gathered her up again. 'This is going to help me with my muscle mass. Hauling her around has to have SOME benefits at least.' He could feel her heartbeat against his chest as he held her with her legs around his waist and his arms supporting her by her bottom. Her face was pressed to his shoulder and her wet hair lay along side his over his back.  
  
Akiko appeared behind them and gathered up his stuff. "And just where were you?" Miroku asked of him as he packed up also. Sango sat up and began the process of repacking everything while Kirara twirled around her feet. Shippo landed on Inu Yasha's shoulder and petted Kagome's hair. As he did so he felt calmed and soothed so he continued stroking until he was lulled to sleep.  
  
"I was around." Was all Akiko said as he took his already packed things and rummaged through them. He quietly pulled out whatever he had been looking for and stuffed it in his shirt front. He turned to face them. "If you really don't want to meet who's coming here then I suggest that you hurry as they are coming here at an alarming rate and I may be able to heal but if you all get hurt then I am pretty much useless as it drains me to do more than one person with out help." He sighed as he shouldered his pack.  
  
"Well do you know if there are more traps ahead Inu Yasha?" Sango asked as she mounted Kirara with Miroku. She looked at him disdainfully as he held onto her. When he didn't take the hint she kicked him lightly in the shin but looked at Inu Yasha instead.  
  
Inu Yasha ignored Akiko's statement for the time and answered Sango first. "Yes there are traps ahead, I know that much. You may go ahead until you reach the castle then stop just before you get too far. If the guards see you they will attack and it won't be too easy as they are used to dealing with youkai more often than not." He warned. He looked at Akiko and Kaori. "And I don't recall asking for your help you're here for Kagome's sake only remember that. I suppose you two want to go too?" He sneered at them.  
  
They glared at him as if to say that they thought he was the stupidest thing they had ever seen, should he think he wasn't. "Yes.... we are coming." Akiko answered tightly. He handed Kaori her bag and they stepped up to the hanyou. "Do you need us to be able to fly or keep from touching the ground so as to not run into the traps?"  
  
The hanyou snorted. "Well yeah. How else are we supposed to get through them?" He rolled his eyes. Akiko whistled and Inu Yasha had to resist the urge cover his ears for the loudness of the sound. Kagome would have fallen to the ground should he have given in. He looked at her ears that resided on her head during the dark hours of the days. He watched as a mist rolled out and Akiko and Kaori stepped onto it. They set their baggage down and sat waiting for him to lead them. "Feh." He growled as he took off.  
  
Kirara was already gone. Inu Yasha jumped from tree to tree and glided through the air at will. The mist kept him from see the ground and it was slightly freaky for him to be leaping and not knowing how he would land if he fell, should there be something to land on he reminded himself.  
  
As the various traps sensed them, he could hear the twang of arrows and sometimes the rustle of leaves as though something was moving under them... Akiko and Kaori managed to keep up and once they reached Miroku and Sango they were huddled in a cave close to the grounds but not quite on the castle's property. They hadn't lit a fire yet and he decided that it was better that way.  
  
Miroku and Kaori shared the back of the cave like the last time. Sango and Akiko were guarding the front. 'Tell me about your life before you were cursed as you are by that spell that Kagome is going to get rid of.' She had touched his hand with her own and squeezed lightly as she asked.  
  
'Ah so you heard that did you? Well I don't really want to... but if you really want to know I'll send you the story as I did with what was happening with Kagome and Inu Yasha okay?' She nodded and instantly was plunged into darkness. She could feel the euphoria that seemed to surround her and knew she was seeing things from Akiko's point of view.  
  
He broke free of the darkness of the trees and sat upon an old and weary tree that had seen better days. He reclined into the branches and seemed to be waiting for something or someone... The bark of the tree bit into his hands and therefore into her own. She could smell the spring as it was leaving the summer air... Taking in a deep breath, he relaxed and calmed himself.  
  
It was not long before her attention was directed to a scuffling among the bushes. She gasped as a young Kaori stepped out of the bushes her face flushed and red from her happiness at seeing him and from her minor fight with the bushes. Her hair held witness to all the trees she had passed as her curls seemed full of twigs and leaves. Her face had a little dirt smudged on it and Akiko was sure that she was the most beautiful thing he had ever seen.  
  
Sango could feel him as he schooled his face into indifference when he really wanted to run to her and hug her. His emotions were familiar to her but she couldn't quite place where she had felt them.  
  
Kaori unfazed rushed to him and started talking very fast in a language that wasn't familiar to Sango. She could understand what the girl was saying by Akiko translating it in her head. "Akiko you shouldn't be out here by yourself. Your father wouldn't like it for one and I just may think that you're sneaking out with other women when I see that your room is empty." Her flushed face and smiling mouth made her words less serious than they were supposed to sound.  
  
"You peek in my room do you?" His happiness and surprise rose inside her. Sango marveled at the feeling. "And just what is it that you're expecting to see when you peek eh?" He let a toothy grin show that he was teasing her. Then it faded and he spoke calmly. "What if I were seeing other women what would you do? As you haven't said whether you care for me or not..." His eyes were grave and serious but on the inside he was praying and hoping that she would tell him what she thought.  
  
"If you were running around with other women you would not be able to bear children in the future is all I have to say." She huffed slightly. "But if its other women you really want... instead of me I won't stand in your way." She turned and hugged herself lightly.  
  
He reached down for her and pulled her into his lap. Sango felt as if it were her fingers that were brushing Kaori's hair out of her face. Once again she marveled at the depth of feeling that came from the man she was looking through. "I am not seeing other women koi. I never said that I was, you're putting words in my mouth besides I have what I want right here with me." He kissed the top of her head and tucked her into his chest.  
  
Kaori shivered in his arms so he tightened his embrace not too sure what he should do. Kaori wasn't much more than a girl at this time... Sango thought. Her tiny arms had wound themselves around his chest and were clinging to him. He felt his shirt stick to him because of the dampness created by Kaori's tears. "Come what are you crying for?" Her face only buried itself further into his clothes. Sango looked down at the girl's brown curly head. 'What is this girl's problem? He just said that she was his love.'  
  
"I'm sorry... Its just you... you just don't seem like... I love you..." She buried her face in his chest and Akiko could feel her lips move against him as she talked. Kaori's soft words held quite the effect on him and of course as Sango was in his body or rather his memories at the time... She could feel the love and desire swamp through her. 'Now this is what I feel with Miroku.' She gasped at the realization as she heard a light chuckle beside her.  
  
Suddenly she was out of his point of view and facing him... while he was also right behind her in frozen motion with his lips pressed to Kaori's. 'Wow I didn't know guys felt things... just like well... I do... and oh god I feel so sorry for you... now that I know what you lost I realize how hard it must be for you to resign yourself to this...'  
  
His usually cheery face was solemn and sad. She stepped up to him and hugged him. 'You said that... is exactly what you felt for the monk... am I correct?' She nodded against his chest. 'Well you know what you should do, do you not?' His hands stroked her hair as he looked on the couple that he used to be a part of.  
  
Once again she nodded but this time it was reluctantly. 'But I don't want to... He... if I did he would only ruin what I say by trying to grope me or asking me to bear his children... and I just don't want that... it would make me feel so cheap... and he would probably say something off to ruin it or do something to make me mad...' She sighed as she looked towards the couple in the tree behind them.  
  
'You never know until you try you know that too.' He paused as he watched the scene move again. 'That was the first night that I knew I was in love with her... A month or two later that whole tragedy happened but by then I had already taken her to bed with me and we were lovers by then...' He followed that with a world weary sigh.  
  
'If it wouldn't hurt you too much to let me see... would you show me?' He looked to her... There was so much of him in her that he could see... and even more that he couldn't. 'You don't have to if it hurts you.' She looked back to the couple and sighed as it ended too quickly for him. He was swamped with regret at all the missed moments he had to tell her that he loved her before the incident.  
  
"We need to go back. I'll walk you to your house and I'll call on you tomorrow afternoon." Akiko said as he took her in his arms and slid off the branch they had resided on. His feet hit the earth with a dull thud and he let her down. She slid her small hand into his and they walked back towards the village.  
  
He sighed as he watched his memory... 'It's no skin off my nose if you see it as long as the others don't and I know that the hanyou will ask you when we get back as you have no idea what we just did in there but you can rest assured that I won't let him or the monk get angry or ask you any questions you don't want to answer okay?' She nodded so he opened his mind and his heart to her...  
  
She was as Akiko again. The air in her lungs was burning like a wild fire but she had to keep going. Her legs didn't want to cooperate and she wasn't used to the length that she now had. Looking down into the bundle in her arms she recognized Kaori's soft features. "Oh Kaori please hang on please!" Was a new mantra for her even though she knew it was Akiko who was saying the words and not her, but she couldn't help but feel like they were hers as she was him in a sense.  
  
Then all she saw was flashes of a man that had brown wavy hair and black squinty eyes. His body was angular and he smelled of strange herbs. Akiko kept what they said from her which irritated her to no end... but she figured that whatever it was that was said bothered him too much. The man's mouth moved and she could feel sorrow for him at what he was saying.  
  
Then she flashed to the next scene where something enveloped him in a blindingly bright light. Pain came in waves upon waves. She could feel a comforting pressure on her hand. She looked and saw that she was holding Kaori's hand. The girl's face was contorted into the pain that she was feeling. Then a horrible laughing filled her ears and she had to get away from it anything to get away from it.  
  
She woke up panting on the floor of the cave Akiko sprawled out beside her. Miroku was hovering over her face. She closed her eyes again but she felt hands cup her face... Opening her eyes, Miroku's face was contorted in worry and pain... 'Was he worried about me?'  
  
'Yes he was... You don't know what Akiko did... do you?' Kaori asked her voice sounding in Sango's head. Sango turned and shot the girl a withering glance. Her tone was too cold for Sango. Inu Yasha came up and got in her face. She didn't hear his words but she saw that he had been worried. Kagome was lying on the floor far enough away from them just in case something drastic would happen with Sango. She smiled then looked at Kaori.  
  
'No I don't, unless you count what he showed me, but I would like to know. All I know is that he took me to see what happened to you guys and I feel so sorry for you... but what happened I need to know so that I can sort this out okay?' She heaved out a big breath and felt Miroku let go of her as he walked away.  
  
'Well you should ask the monk about it. He was so concerned... He even asked me to stop him so that you wouldn't do something you regretted. But I didn't he needed to hear-' Sango raced off when she heard the last not bothering to listen to the rest of what the girl had to say. "Miroku?" She called gently as she reached the back of the cave.  
  
He was sitting in the darkest part of the back of the cave his head resting on his knees. His shoulders shook with emotion. "Miroku..." She said softly. His body stiffened and he looked at her with over-emotional eyes.  
  
"Yes Sango?" 'His voice! Where was the sweetness? Where are the lilting tones that I always heard in his voice?' She walked over to him. "You shouldn't be up after what you did... I would imagine you need a few days to recuperate..." He trailed off.  
  
"Listen Miroku I don't know what I did... and Kaori said that I should ask you... but you aren't acting like yourself... would you tell me what's wrong?" Sango sat close to him and touched his knee comfortingly.  
  
"No I would rather not." He could remember the way her body had shown with her life force and how it had almost gone out. How he couldn't get very close due to the shield that Akiko had thrown up to keep them out. He shuddered, then her hand on his knee brought him back. He looked at her, fear of what he had seen evident on his face.  
  
Sango's lips pursed. "Miroku I think you need to tell me what happened." Her hand moved from his leg to his hand and she squeezed it lightly. He looked at her hand in shock. 'What happened to her in her mind that she is acting like this? Usually if I were to pull something like that on her I would be out like a light in under a minute...' "Please." She asked quietly.  
  
'Well with what she's doing she won't mind.' He laid his head on her shoulder. "Do I have to?" He sighed when he felt her squeeze his hand again. 'She isn't going to hit me?' He cleared his throat and tried to stall... but when she just looked at him and waited... He tried to tell her. "When you and Akiko started whatever it was that you were doing... a blast of white light ran through the cave and I don't know how far it went outside... Well anyway when I got there, as I was the first to arrive, you were doing some odd things..." He sincerely didn't want to tell her... not any of it...  
  
"What did I do?" He lay closer to her knowing that this would probably be his only chance as she wanted information... He knew he shouldn't grope her as it would make her leave him so he kept his hands to himself...  
  
"You were talking aloud about the things that ran through your mind... Well I supposed that they ran through your mind especially at the time... Things that I shall not repeat as it is bad enough that we all heard them..." She pulled away from him suddenly and stood up.  
  
"What did I say?" When he didn't answer her and he just looked away she assumed that he wouldn't tell her. "I'm sorry for what I said even though I have no clue what the things I said were..." She trailed off and left him to walk out into the fresh air... 'As it is bad enough that we all heard them? What did I say?' His words had hurt though she would never tell him so. She walked for a while in the forest not going too far lest they be discovered but enough to feel like she was getting away from Miroku and the feelings he was causing. 'Please dear God, do not let them be things that were overtly bad.'  
  
"Sango? Sango, where are you?" She closed her eyes as she heard the monk calling for her. 'Don't let him see me. Please don't see me.' She cursed when she heard his footsteps slow behind her and she felt his good hand take her left one. "I'm sorry that was uncalled for of me to say that." He rubbed the back of his head with his cursed hand. "I seem to only be able to say the wrong things lately... I am sorry Sango."  
  
"Don't think on it. After all you were only stating what you truly thought no one should be required to apologize for their feelings..." Sango replied quickly thinking that the sooner she agreed the sooner he'd leave. "I just needed some fresh air after all... what I saw did give me quite the shake, but I'm fine now you can go back inside."  
  
"What happened?" Miroku asked as he stepped closer. She could feel his breath on her neck, and the goose bumps that were coming up all over her skin because of it.  
  
She gave pause. 'What were his exact words? Oh yeah.' "Things that I shall not repeat as it is bad enough that I heard them." She felt him stiffen a bit and was satisfied that his words thrown back at him had almost the same effect as it had had on her. She wanted him brought down to her level for once. With all his groping of other women and asking them to bear his child while she was just right there... She squashed the thought so it didn't take root in her mind.  
  
"It did bother you Sango. Why didn't you say that it did?" He stepped in front of her and looked into her dark eyes. "I'm sorry Sango I didn't mean to hurt you like that." He tried his best to appear as sincere as he felt but he wasn't certain that it was turning out that way...  
  
She turned her head away from him. "It seems that you pick up a lot more from Inu Yasha than you think... Apology accepted. But what I saw... it was... different and odd but I'm not certain that I can tell you." He gripped her hands a little tighter, making her turn to face him.  
  
"Why can't you?" His eyes searched her own to try to detect any underlying tones.  
  
"Because it's Akiko's past, not mine, so I don't know if I have the right to tell you what he showed me in confidence... although there is some of it that I can tell you. If you want to hear it that is." She turned away from him again and pulled her hands out of his grasp. He followed her as she tucked her skirt under her when she sat down.  
  
"Yes I would like to hear whatever it is that you can tell me." Miroku looked up into the trees as he relaxed back a little. He kept his hand near her just incase she decided to leave again.  
  
"Well Akiko and Kaori were in love-" She started but was interrupted.  
  
"They were what?" His eyes bugged. "But they're brother and sister... that's just wrong." He couldn't fathom it. 'Was Akiko so desperate as to come onto his sister?'  
  
"Are you going to let me continue? You don't even know what happened so if you'd shut up for a while and listen..." She eyes him and he apologized so she continued on. "Well they were in love and they weren't brother and sister then. He was apparently the tribe leader's son and she was the daughter of one of the family's close friends. She looked like she was rather adventurous then and he was a real calm person but its not as if he changed. Any way they loved each other but then they were cursed by a spell gone awry and that is why they are brother and sister now." She looked at Miroku.  
  
"So what was it that you experienced while you were with Akiko?" Miroku asked as he rubbed her shoulder lightly. She sighed and rested her head on her knees.  
  
"I was Akiko while I was there. I felt what he did that's how I knew that he really loved her... and while I was there I almost fell in love with her too... she was really sweet and special if a bit odd. She cried when he called her 'koi' don't ask me why but she did... I know that I wouldn't do that should anyone ever call me that but that's beside the point... She was a really girly girl but she had no qualms about getting a little dirty..." She sighed and didn't notice it when Miroku moved a bit closer.  
  
Sesshomaru could see some of Inu Yasha's pack members sitting under a tree by themselves. 'So Inu Yasha is here... I should've known.' He looked around for any sign of where they were staying but came up short. 'I guess I have to stoop low enough to use my nose to find them.' He made a face and sniffed disdainfully at the air. He could smell the monk's scent as it heightened to entice the girl next to him but with their bad noses she wouldn't be able to smell it. He sniffed delicately again and could smell Inu Yasha and his woman all over them. 'What do they do? Do they all sleep together?' He wrinkled his nose at the thought utterly disgusted, conveniently forgetting that he let Rin lay on his chest at night and that he must smell like her.  
  
He could pick up the trail from where they came from. He followed the trail slowly and making sure that they didn't see him nor pick him up. Suddenly he felt someone probing at the barriers at his mind. He closed up immediately and erased any trace of where he was at. He could hear murmurings up ahead so he followed the voices. Coming upon a cave he smiled slightly. He could see that Inu Yasha's wench wasn't around and some girl was lying in his arms. 'Did she die? What happened to her?'  
  
He stepped as close as he dared. Inu Yasha was currently getting his temper boiling so he wouldn't notice his big brother as he stepped up to the entrance. His orange eyes took in the meager surroundings and he wanted to sneer. 'Of course he would sleep in a pathetic little hole like this where he could be attacked at any moment... not as if he cared or anything.'  
  
He sniffed the air at the strange girl. Something was familiar about him. It confused him as well as intrigued him. Curiosity piqued, he wandered into the cave before he thought about it. He was crouched down in front of the girl before he noticed that his brother was growling at him and trying to hide her from him and draw his sword at the same time. "Stay your sword Inu Yasha. I have no intention of fighting you as of now... What is this wench that she smells like your mate? Who is she?" He asked before he thought about it.  
  
"She is not my mate." Inu Yasha blurted before he thought.  
  
"I know this girl isn't but where is your mate? Wouldn't she be upset at you and send you to the ground should she see you like this?" Sesshomaru touched the girl's forehead with his claws and a pounding headache started behind his eyes. 'What is it about this girl?' He felt like he was trying to recall something that was just lurking beneath the surface... 'What is it?'  
  
"This girl is Kagome." Inu Yasha barked out curious as to where Sesshomaru was going with this.  
  
His cold eyes lighted on the two new additions to Inu Yasha's pack. "Who are your new pack members Inu Yasha?" His eyes stayed on the girl in his brother's arms as he asked. The sun was rising and he could smell human starting to take over her body. When the sun came up he watched amazed as her hair turned into a black mass and her ears that had been on top of her head traveled down until they touched the side of her head. He stared his jaw slack as he noticed that 'this' was Inu Yasha's bitch.  
  
He noticed that his jaw was slack and was instantly mad that he had shown emotions. His mask came down with a vengeance as he looked over the new additions.  
  
The brown haired human girl stared in awe at his face. "What?" He asked a little curious as to what she was staring at. He looked at the blonde boy and they were staring at him as if they had seen a ghost.  
  
He glared at them. "I hope you had a comfortable stay Inu Yasha for it ends now. Go home and don't come back. If I remember correctly you were sentenced to death should you ever enter on this property of mine again." He stood up and eyed Kagome again. His tail flared out as he left the cave.  
  
A few minutes later Sango and Miroku ran inside the cave. "Sesshomaru was here!" They called in unison. Inu Yasha gave them a dry look. "No. It was the lord of all that is holy and merciful. He rolled his eyes at them. "You should really start paying attention instead of always goofing off with each other." He looked down at Kagome and then outside.  
  
'Akiko did you recognize that man?' Kaori asked as she stared at where he had just left. Akiko nodded mutely. "Inu Yasha who is that man?" Kaori asked, thankful that her voice stayed steady.  
  
"That is my half-brother Sesshomaru." Inu Yasha replied tersely. He looked down at Kagome and whispered to her alone. "Just what is it that you're doing over there, Kagome? Why is it that Sesshomaru was remembering something by looking at you? Have you seen him over there?"  
  
"Taking care of spell... Sess... no" She mumbled groggily.  
  
"Your half-brother?" Kaori pressed. Inu Yasha nodded not paying her any mind as he stared at the girl in his arms. "What happened while you were growing up? I don't remember seeing you around him." Kaori said before she thought about it.  
  
Inu Yasha's head snapped up at that. "What do you mean you don't 'remember' me being around him?" His voice was dangerously low. "Of course I wasn't around that jerk. I never went back because he sent people to kill me."  
  
"And that endangered Kagome?" Akiko said quietly. His green eyes pierced into Inu Yasha's golden ones. Inu Yasha just stared at the blonde boy unwilling to answer. "It did and that is the main reason you hate him now. You can't take anyone who tries to harm her, especially with what all she's done and is doing for you. Sesshomaru is the only one that hurt her and he lived, so you hate him that he is still here after he hurt Kagome. You probably tried to kill him and it didn't work and that really got you." His face seemed to block out all else in Inu Yasha's vision. He growled not liking the sensation that was running up and down his spine.  
  
Inu Yasha glared murderously at the boy. Miroku and Sango moved away from the two boys knowing something big was about to blow. The kitsune had the unfortunate luck to have heard the last bit of Akiko's little speech and spoke up. "Boy does he ever try to kill him. But as you see, Sesshomaru just strolled in here not missing much but his left arm."  
  
Kaori looked at the hanyou and decided rather quickly to pick up the kit. 'Don't say any more, Shippo. Akiko is pushing buttons with Inu Yasha and the hanyou isn't taking too well to it.' Shippo looked up at her about to say something, not realizing that she had spoken in his head. Kaori quickly covered his mouth. 'Say what you want in your head. I can hear it just fine.'  
  
Shippo's eyes widened as he saw that her lips didn't move. 'How are you doing that?' He was interrupted by Inu Yasha springing to his feet accidentally knocking Kagome out of his lap. He was instantly contrite and leaned down to apologize and to rearrange her to where she didn't look so uncomfortable. 'Akiko is using Kagome as bait isn't he? That is a very bad idea.'  
  
'And why is that such a bad idea little one?' Kaori asked slightly confused.  
  
'Inu Yasha's sword is laying by Kagome and not on him. When he went to go and use it on Sesshomaru he forgot to put it back.' Shippo looked to where the sword gleamed in the light from the rising sun.  
  
'What does his sword have to do with anything?' Kaori stroked the kit's hair playing with his ribbon, not realizing the true danger that was just beside her... literally.  
  
'If he doesn't have his sword he turns into a full demon if his emotions get the better of him.' Shippo explained quickly as he thought about rushing to get the sword to him... but when this happened it was safer for Kagome to do it, as the demon loved her and would never hurt her no matter what he thought of doing. 'I don't think any of us would survive if we tried to get the sword to him. Just look at Inu Yasha's eyes.'  
  
His eyes were tinged red as he approached Akiko. Kaori looked worriedly at him then at the sword. 'Stay here.' She ran over and snatched the sword up. "Oh look at what Sesshomaru left. Boy does he have a cool sword." She twirled it around in the air as she spun lithely towards the demon.  
  
"That is my sword." Inu Yasha said. Kaori could see where his fangs had started to grow. "Give it back." He held out a clawed hand. Kaori just looked at it then at him.  
  
"Why don't you try to claim it from me?" He reached out and snatched it from her hands before she could start to mess around. Sheathing it, he gave Akiko a warning glance then went back to Kagome. Pulling her close to him as he laid down.  
  
"Get to sleep stupid humans. We'll go look around in the afternoon." He said as he snuggled closer to her.  
  
"But what about your brother?" Sango asked as she and Miroku moved to the front of the cave to sleep.  
  
"Feh, he's not going to rely on some stupid human to come kill us. If he wants to he'll come here himself and he's already left. That about says that he doesn't care one way or the other... He was probably thinking it was someone important or something." Inu Yasha yawned widely lolling his tongue. "Get to sleep we can talk later if you guys are wanting to so badly."  
  
Kagome looked at the little boy that strolled beside her. He noticed her stare and smiled at her as he took her hand. "What are you thinking about, Kagome?" He asked as he swung their joined hands to and fro.  
  
"I was thinking about you and me... the things that happened in the future..." She looked off wistfully into the trees. Looking back down at him she gave him a brilliant smile.  
  
"Like what things?" He tilted his head slightly as he looked at her.  
  
"Well I can't very well tell you incase it might not happen..." He gave her a cute puppy dog stare trying to get her to tell him. She laughed at him and smiled some more. "Okay I'll tell you. You rotten little thing manipulating me like that." She tickled his tummy to show that she didn't mean it. "Well you kissed me twice, I think. And I was just thinking about how you felt about it, as you hardly ever tell me what you think in that time. I just wanted to know how you felt." She smiled again. "Stupid huh?"  
  
"No not at all. What did you feel like after you kissed me?" He smiled at her as he squeezed her hand. "After I kissed you I mean."  
  
"Well... you know this could sound wrong as you're right here but... well I liked it. I really did." He grinned as if it had been him and not his future self who had kissed her. He elbowed her lightly teasing her. "Oh you." She laughed as she pushed him gently.  
  
"Someone has a crush on me!" He laughed as she punched him in the arm not quite so gently but it didn't hurt. "I'm kidding, I'm kidding... What I really meant was someone loves me." He laughed some more and strung her arm about his shoulder again.  
  
"Of course I love you." Kagome said as she continued walking. "My dad used to tease my mother about her loving him... I can still remember sitting behind them and listening as he joked with her." Inu Yasha pulled at her shirt, the unspoken request to be picked up. She complied as she carried him much like Inu Yasha carried her around in the future. His tiny legs dangled at her waist and her hands were supporting him under his bottom. His face pillowed itself on her chest while he listened to her talk of her family.  
  
"Mom cried days on end when he was finally gone. I remember Souta was so little and he didn't understand what was going on. He kept asking me and mother when dad was going to come home... Of course this always brought about a fresh round of tears for my mother as her loss was still new..."  
  
"Well I suppose it's best that my mother and father went out at the same time ne? That way neither one of them would have suffered that heart ache... How did your mom survive? I was told that when you are closely mated with someone... that you die if they do... How did your mom not do that?" He ran his claws up and down her neck as he spoke.  
  
"Well she needed to take care of Souta and me. Grandpa is really old and he wouldn't be able to... plus in my real time that doesn't happen anymore. When your mate dies, you have to go on living no matter what, so that you don't hurt the ones that are still there and that want you around." She explained as best she could.  
  
"But what if there is no one that loves you and wants you around?" Inu Yasha asked as his hand stilled on her neck. His eyes met hers as she looked down at him and frowned.  
  
"No matter what you may think at the time, there is always someone who loves you at every moment of your life." She paused. "Even if you don't think so, they just may not be there yet... or they may not have told you how they feel yet." She took one of her hands out from under him and ran it through his hair trying to soothe him. She could feel that he needed it. He leaned into her hand as he relaxed, keeping what she had said stored in his memory.  
  
"My dad always said that... It was one of the things that I always loved about him. He could say something that would totally lift you up... I can remember when he said it too... I had been so mad at both him and mother, although I can't really remember what it was that they had done to me. I yelled at him when he came into my room and told him that no one loved me." She smiled at the memory. Inu Yasha twirled his fingers through her hair. "He tried to tell me that he did. But I screamed at him to get out and that he didn't... that's when he told me that little phrase."  
  
Inu Yasha rested his head on her shoulder. Her fingered the dual colored strands of hair thinking on her words. It had gotten quiet again, not half so bad last time as an owl was hooting through the air. "My father never said anything like that. He was always out for himself or for his mate... my mother. Whatever suited him at the time was what he did. Sesshomaru suited him more often than not... I know that he loved me but he wanted to have Sesshomaru around more because he was older than I was and more useful... or at least that was my dad's reasoning as far as I knew." He paused listening to the owl's sounds. "I loved my mother as she always said or did stuff that made me feel better. She kept the other demons who made fun of me for my half-demon state. No one wanted to play with me in the city. I wasn't allowed to play with them as I was a 'dirty half-breed' as they liked to call me. I was older than a lot of them as it was my father that brought the town together instead of roaming around like regular packs did."  
  
"You formed packs usually?" Kagome asked. "I'm sorry but I don't know all that much about demons. In the future all we do is fight them off there's really no time to do much else. Although lately there hasn't been that many demons... the last ones we fought almost killed me if it weren't for Akiko.. Who is that lady's brother, I would have died in our cave."  
  
"Well I'll have to thank him for doing that. I wouldn't have liked it if you had died... I wouldn't have known... would I?" He said quietly.  
  
"No you wouldn't have... until way into the future and I would imagine that you wouldn't want to wait that long to know would you?" She smiled.  
  
"Kagome, if you would've died... that would have... I don't want to be with out you Kagome." He wrapped his arms around her neck and held her to him.  
  
"I told you I'm not going to leave you silly. I love you too much to just up and do that." She smiled at him trying to alleviate his fears.  
  
"But you can't help but leave me if you die Kagome. You don't have any control over that." He ran his hands over her shoulders. "You could die when you go back and then I would be alone. And I would have no idea of what happened to you..."  
  
"Then all you have to do is promise me that you'll do the best you can to protect me. That's all you have to do. I trust you to keep your word and if you do that then I have no worries and neither should you." She smiled at him. "You are the strongest person I have ever known. I trust you with my life almost every day... well I do every day really." She smiled some more but didn't look at him as her eyes held an off otherworldly interest.  
  
"I promise Kagome. I won't let you get hurt." Inu Yasha said. Rain started to come down and promised to get their clothes soaked quickly. Kagome moved under a tree and shielded him from all the rain she could. He looked up into her face and saw her hair as it stuck to the sides of her face. Before he thought about it, he kissed her cheeks. "Let's figure out what to do about this rain. You're going to get sick should you stay out here and morning comes... The cold and the wet will get to you. It happened to my mother." He paused and looked at her face. "Father had to shield her from the rain to keep her from getting sick."  
  
"Well what do you suggest we do? I doubt there's a cave conveniently located just around the corner." She looked just to make sure that she was right with her point.  
  
"I wasn't suggesting a cave. Why don't we just make a dry spot for ourselves? It would be easier." He looked to the giant tree that was only a little ways away but would get them both soaked to the bone should they run for it. "Do you think you could dry out by morning should you get soaked?" She nodded. "Do you see that tree over there?" She looked then before he could say anything she bound over and up into the higher branches.  
  
He looked around satisfied when only a few drops made it down to touch them. He noted that they were a lot higher in the tree than what he was used to. He could feel her hands as they touched his face. Looking to her, he saw that she was smiling at him. "Thank you for showing me this. I didn't notice it and I would've stood in the rain oblivious to the shelter that was just right there."  
  
He frowned at her. "You would've stayed out in that rain like that? You wouldn't have moved?"  
  
"You would've gotten wet and sick should I have done that. But now we don't have to worry about it as we're both going to be dry when the morning rolls around... maybe we should go to sleep as I doubt the rain is going to let up and we don't travel during the day usually... plus we haven't gotten too much sleep as of late." She snuggled down at the juncture of the branch and held out her arms for him to crawl into.  
  
He took the hint and curled against her. 'She would have stayed out like that... protecting me from the rain just so that I wouldn't have to have any problems during the day... I wish I had the chance to show her how much that meant to me that she would have done that...'  
  
Kagome could see the grown Inu Yasha snuggled against her in the light of morning... 'Must be another vision.' His eyes cracked open as he stared at her. He pressed his lips to her forehead creating a heat to start in her heart and travel through out her body. "Kagome you've done so much for me." He murmured so quietly she wondered if she had imagined it. "How much more are you going to do?" He pressed his forehead against hers.  
  
Inu Yasha felt like someone was watching him. He opened his eyes but it was only Kagome in his arms that he could see. No one was awake. He figured that he had only been sleeping for an hour or so. He could still feel her rain soaked skin pressed against his as she protected him from the rain. He kissed her forehead and felt the heat coming off of her. "Kagome... you've done so much for me..." he wanted to tell her what he had been realizing as of late but it was so fresh in his mind that he was still trying to get used to the idea before he said anything to her... Let alone risk the others finding out. "How much more are you going to do?" He paused. 'I think I'm falling in love with you... if I'm not already there.' He frowned not liking the thought too much but then again... He didn't really have an excuse not to let himself. After all she was now part hanyou at least half the time and he was teaching her to fight fairly well even if she wasn't a hanyou at the time.  
  
He couldn't use the excuse that she had her own time now as she couldn't go back to it now... with the way she is she just might get stuck in one of those laboratories or something... He could still remember her explanation for them.  
  
' "It's a place that scientists study what they don't know." Kagome said.  
  
"Are there many demons in your time?" Inu Yasha asked as he lay up high in his tree.  
  
"No there aren't. Most people don't know that they do exist... well if there are anymore that is." She licked her lips to get rid of the dry feeling that had been bothering her a lot lately. "If we were to find some then I would imagine that they would take them to a laboratory to see what their insides looked like or to see how they worked. You know... put them through tests to see how their bodies operate." Kagome popped her back as she stretched.'  
  
She could get stuck in one of those places. He would kill them all before they cut her open to look at her insides. And now that she was part hanyou... or rather a 'him' as she had put it. He grinned at the memory. Demons could come to hunt her for her being the way she was but he would be with her so that kind of put that idea down. He could love her freely... the only problem being now was his pride.  
  
Would loving her be weak? Would she think he was weak if he said he loved her? 'No she told you all the time she loved you when she was with you when you were a few decades younger... Wait... why doesn't she tell you so now?' He looked down at her frowning slightly. 'Do you still love me?' He wanted to know. Burying his face at her neck he went back to sleep to ponder his new problem.  
  
Author's Note: Thank you all for reviewing. I love it that you guys like my fic. Pay attention to everything that I say in this. Most of it is foreshadowing of stuff to come in later chapters as I have this all outlined and I can promise that they are all as interesting as I can make them.  
  
Lindy girl: ok, it's me again. ^_^did you miss me? I miss ch5.rnBut that could be because it's not posted yet*sigh*.rnYour story rocks, and the sooner another chapter is out the more opportunities people will have to review ^_^. RnSo. Up-date and save my sanity Whahahaha!  
  
I am trying my hardest to get these out just as fast as my little hands can manage and I hope that you are all really enjoying this fic. Like most of you say you are ^^;  
  
lindy*girl Fine, fine! I just read your bio and got a major guilt trip I didn't deserve. So now I'm going to review all the chapters. I've already done 3 and 4 but I'll write one for 2 if it makes you happy and willing to post sooner. rnIf you can't tell I'm totally lovin' this fic( I wouldn't bother to go back and write these if I didn't^_^). Please post again soon^_^.  
  
I'm sorry if you guys feel guilty reading my bio, I'll change it.. ^^; Sometimes I have that averse effect on people when I feel down about not getting what I want.  
  
Dark Rose Really good!! but how does Akiko know about Romeo and Juliet?  
  
Okay I'm sorry if I didn't explain it in my fic but I will put up a little off track thing to show how he knows if that's what you guys want. I am really sorry if you guys want me to be really specific and stick to total detail on what they did and didn't know. After all who's to say that Shakespeare didn't get the idea off of some story he heard as a child? I don't know... any way Ill try to rectify that as soon as possible.  
  
Dark Rose This is an amazing story!! it is soo good, but I got confused during the second chapter when she turned hanyou before it got dark, was it because of the dream? well good work. Keep writing!!  
  
Yes she turned hanyou before it got dark because of her little visit to the past as it got dark there before it got dark in the present time. Sorry if that threw any of you off earlier.  
  
SofiaDragon (http://www.fanfiction.net/profile.php?userid=332526)  
  
This is an awesome story! You've got a solid plot, a nice mystery w/out leaving the reader with the feeling of "Wait a minute! Why did they stop writing there?" That such tactics usually do in fan fiction. You are a wonderful writer, keep it up! I can't wait until Fluffy finds them... or will Kagome run into Fluffy in the past? ^__^  
  
*wipes tear from eyes* I love you *sniff sniff* You gave me such the great idea and I will use that... You all catch that? This is what I like giving me ideas like this.. *hugs Sofia Dragon* And you are all so nice to me 'its just all so magical'  
  
0 (http://www.fanfiction.net/profile.php?userid=1)  
  
I really like your story. I don't usually review so bare with me but I think you're a wonderful writer.  
  
And its people like you that make it hard for me to get up with such a big head.. You guys are really fueling my ego and I love it! Heheh  
  
lindy*girl()  
  
Hi again^_^! Wow, I'm still floored by this fic. rnEverything about it is awesome. rnSorry about the not reviewing every chapter thing, but I only found this yesterday ^_^. rnBut hey! I'm hooked now so as long as you keep up-dating I'll make sure to write reviews. rnYou're awesome, good luck with the rest!  
  
One thing I have to ask and please don't think I am stupid ^^; what is the rn for? And thank you so much for telling me how much you liked my story.  
  
tigerlily87 (http://www.fanfiction.net/profile.php?userid=336803)  
  
I think that your story is still as awesome! I REALLY wanna know what's going on with what Kaori and Akiko want Kagome to do! Can't wait for the next chapter! ^_^  
  
Thank you so much for you guys saying so many nice things...  
  
lindy*girl()  
  
OMG! This is so good! Hardly any grammatical, or spelling erros that I can see. A plot to die for, and I mean it, this combines a few of my favorite things in Inu Yasha fics. I love the length, and the attention to details is greatly appreciated ^_^ .rnIn other words PLEASE up-date soon. I'm hooked!  
  
Lindy*girl if you keep this up I'm going to start crying you are so nice to me and I appreciate it so much you just have no idea. You other reviewers take a page out of her book. Look at how many times she's reviewed for me. I am so touched heheh  
  
Aldrean Treu Peri (http://www.fanfiction.net/profile.php?userid=125915)  
  
Mmm, me likes. Kagome's little ventures into Inuyasha's past are sweet and I like how they're cautiously treading onto the unfamiliar terrain of trust and love. I hope you continue this soon, as I'd like to know more about this spell Kagome must break. The room of crystal and such sounded simply beautiful and I'd love to have one of my own that meant so much to my true love. Wait. I need a true love first. *sigh* Someday, someday...just as someday Inuyasha and Kagome can be happily and openly in love and Miroku and Sango quit dancing around each other and their emotions. rnrnHugs, kisses and sweet *day*dreams ~ Aldrean Treu Peri, Neo-Moon Guardian ~rnrnSee you, Space Cowboy!  
  
Well I hope I satisfied you with all the loverly stuff that's been happening lately. I know I enjoy it and I'm trying to get it to go the way I want but sometimes my imagination distracts me. And I hope that you do find your true love soon as everyone needs one but just to let you know I wish I had that stuff too *sigh* And you watch Cowboy Bebop don't you?  
  
SquirrelnoShi (http://www.fanfiction.net/profile.php?userid=216346)  
  
Wow! You write so well, and super long chapters, too! I hope you write more soon because I have really enjoyed it so far!  
  
I tried to write all that I could. I liked long chapters on my fics to so that's why I wrote mine that way although some of the other authors told me that I should probably break them up into shorter chunks. Well if I did that I would be able to put out some almost every night so if you guys want updates every night then its going to be shorter but if you guys want long chapters it'll probably take a week in between updates. Your choice, tell me what you think.  
  
Yodey Really enjoyed your story so far. I also like the long chapters. Can't wait to read the next one.  
  
Once again thank you so much for telling me how much you appreciate the fic I really like hearing about it.  
  
sayin-girl (http://www.fanfiction.net/profile.php?userid=240923)  
  
I love this story! I think it's beautiful. please continue it. I promise to give you good reviews every time. Little Inu is so cute!  
  
Well I always adored the way little Inu looked in the anime so I put him in my story and I love him so much that I just had to do it... can you blame me? Hehe  
  
tigerlily87 (http://www.fanfiction.net/profile.php?userid=336803)  
  
OMG! This is the stupidest story I've ever read! NOT! I'm just kidding! Seriously though, I absolutely LOVE your story! I got so into the story...^_^...Keep up the GREAT work, and I can't wait until you post the next chapters! ^_~  
  
Well I'm trying to type them up super fast... If I were a strong hanyou maybe that would help.. (wonder if I can get the dead demon to curse me too jk)  
  
Heather (http://www.fanfiction.net/profile.php?userid=252785)  
  
I really like your story. It has a very original plot line, the only thing I can think of for you to improve is two not make the chapters quite so long, split them into more, also, your missing commas in places, but hey, great story anyway! Can't wait for The next chapter. rnrn-Heather-  
  
Well I try to get them out like I said earlier but you haven't reviewed for the longest time heather. Is it too much to read? Incase any of you guys want a great story to read go to heather's story I think I have her marked in my favorite stories or authors I'm not sure which but she's there and she writes so well.. you guys should read her story if you like mine. 


	6. Anger Management

Chapter 6: Anger Management  
  
Disclaimer: No I do not own InuYasha.. nor do I really want to.. *bashes hanyou on head* you stupid baka.. left me all on my own when I needed your help with things..  
  
InuYasha: *rubs lump on head* I was.. busy.. yeah busy.. *grins evilly*  
  
Danielle: Okay so when I was losing friends and stuff like that and having all these problems-  
  
InuYasha: *covers Danie's mouth* Why I would never- *is hit by Miroku's staff*  
  
Miroku: Let go of Danie-sama.. I do believe she got a few great ideas for Akiko and Kaori and myself am I correct?  
  
Danielle: *smiles under InuYasha's hand* Yes I did.. actually I got quite a few good ones.. but for me to go on with InuYasha and Kagome Im going to have to concentrate on Kagome and Akiko and Kaori.. but because of that there will be a lot of Sango and Akiko scenes as they do get along so well.. *is worried by jealous look on Miroku's face* but.. uh not as good as you two will be ^^ let me promise you Miroku I will not let Akiko screw Sango on my time but her own time is a different story. Got me?  
  
Miroku: *grumbles and kicks Danie in the shin* Yeah.. on with the fic...  
  
Kagome woke up hog-tied and gagged in a foreign village. 'Oh this is just too great.. not as if I havent dealt with this type of situation before...' A younger version of Kaori stepped out of the shadows after the villagers were done peering into her face and talking amongst themselves. She hadnt understood a word they had said. Being that it was in a dialect other than what she knew.. and she had thought she was well versed in foriegn languages.  
  
"Dsl ziv blf?" Her puzzlement must've shown on her face, as Kaori spit out another babble of words and dashed off like she was on a mission. "Qfhg z hvzlmw ovg nv tvg blf hlnvgsrmt..." Kagome shook her head trying to dispel the rag at her mouth.  
  
"InuYasha.." She called out once she had gotten it completely off. "InuYasha where are you?" Turning her head, she tried to see behind her but it was confined as they had hooked her up to a tree stump to keep her from moving around overtly much.  
  
"K-kagome?" Came a weak call behind her.  
  
She wanted to weep for joy when she heard his small voice. "InuYasha.. listen to me.. can you move?" She wriggled around trying to dislodge the ropes that bound her wrists.  
  
"Yeah.. I think I can.. Kagome?" His voice sounded hesitant. "Why cant I understand what these people are saying?"  
  
"Because they arent speaking the same language that you are dear." Kagome answered as she tried again to pull and tug on the ropes. "InuYasha if you can move make sure you try to get out of the ropes that are binding you. And if you can make sure you get far away from here until I can come get you.. I am not entirely sure of what these people will do to us okay?"  
  
She listened to him grunt and groan as he tugged at the ropes. She assumed he was working with his teeth to get loose. After a while the sounds stopped, making her turn her head trying to see if he had listened to her and gotten away. Instead she felt a tug at her own ropes and sharp teeth catch her on the wrist. She jerked but kept silent realizing it was InuYasha. "I told you to go. I dont want you to be hurt by this InuYasha." He growled deep in his chest but kept on cutting away her bonds.  
  
Kagome heard Kaori before she even saw her. Kaori let out a squeak as she saw that InuYasha was loose. What she had been holding in her hands dropped to the ground. Kagome looked at the device curiously. It resembled a modern day earphone. Kagome looked up at the young Kaori. When InuYasha freed her she moved forward and picked up the funny thing.  
  
Kaori watched as the black haired girl put the translator in her ear. "Can you understand me now?" She asked tentavely.  
  
Kagome looked at her strangely. "Yeah I can understand you now.. Where are we?" She took InuYasha's hand in her own and gripped it tightly.  
  
"You are in my village. Do not be alarmed, we have no intention of eating you or anything cannabalistic like that." She smiled at Kagome. "But we had found you on our territory so the warriors of the village went out and took you here to know what buisness you have with the people here."  
  
"The buisness that I have is entirely personal but it doesnt involve the people here... Do you know of an Akiko?" Kagome asked.  
  
Kaori's face grew more stern. She eyed Kagome and InuYasha speculatively seeming to size them up. "What is it that you would want with him?"  
  
"Oh good so he is here. Thought that maybe you guys had grown up in a different village from eachother.. this sure does make it easier." Kagome smiled at her and went forward tugging InuYasha along behind her.  
  
"Kagome.." InuYasha tugged at her hand. "I dont like this girl.. she smells like the other girl from before." He whispered to her as he scooted closer to her body. "Why do they smell the same Kagome?" Then he remembered something. "When it gets dark.. and youre a hanyou.. are you going to be okay? I mean.. they might try to kill you."  
  
"Ill be fine InuYasha. They wont harm me I promise you." She whipsered back to him. "Kaori?" The girl jumped at her name. "I need to speak with you and Akiko in private if you will.. tonight if at all possible.. I will be at the village entrance at dark.. do not wander from the village for anything until you have spoken with me is that clear?"  
  
"I have no clue how you know my name or his.. but we will meet you... I cannot promise to stay in the village however. We do have other matters to attend to." Kaori looked at her defiently.  
  
"Well if you want to chance your lives then do as you please." Kagome said tersely then turned on her heel and left. InuYasha glared at Kaori then ran off to trail after Kagome.  
  
"Kagome.. I still dont like that girl.. why are you helping her?" InuYasha asked not wanting her to keep on trying to help that rude twit.  
  
"Because in the future.. I made a promise that I would do that.. and when you make a promise it is your duty to make sure that you fulfil it no matter what you want to do later." She sighed and leaned against a tree when they were far enough away from the village.  
  
"Kagome.. what I dont understand is why you want them to meet you at night when they are most likely not to recognize you?.. they dont have good noses so they wont be able to sniff you to tell if it is you or not.. all they can do is look.." InuYasha frowned wondering how in the world someone could stand to live without a good nose on their face. "Plus if they dont recognize you.. who's to say that they wont just club you over the head and haul you off like before?" He frowned up at her.  
  
Kagome smiled down at him. "Ill be fine InuYasha.. dont worry so much. Even if they cannot smell me I look like myself in the face enough for them to be able to tell that it is me or at least I think...Besides if they still want to club me this time Ill be awake and will make sure they dont get the chance to do so." She frowned as she thought of her letting them capture InuYasha and herself.. 'No I cannot let that happen.'  
  
His little claws bit into her fingers as he held her hand. "Kagome..?"  
  
"Yes InuYasha?" She said as he jolted her out of her depressive thoughts.  
  
"Im kinda hungry... lets go get something to eat then ne?" InuYasha said quietly. His long white hair fell into his eyes due to a wayward wind that started to blow. His fangs bit into his lip as he waited for her to come back to him from her thoughts. She had done this before to him.. it always worried him. He couldnt let anything happen to her.. She was his and he was going to protect all that he had.  
  
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Kaori was determined to find out what that girl was all about. 'How could she want to meet MY Akiko?.. Has he been seeing other women?.. Since when did this begin?' She heaved out a sigh feeling jealousy fill her. 'I should not be thinking these things.. He would never do this to me as we are... well as I think we are soon to be betrothed.. and everything.. He seems to like me.. after all.. would he flirt with someone he didnt like?' Being so absorbed in her thoughts she didnt realize she had walked so far.  
  
Looking around her, she saw that she was in the small grove a little outside her village. Akiko was standing in the waist deep grass seeming to be looking at something over the mountains. "What are you doing here?"  
  
She jumped when she heard his quiet voice across the field. He had a way of telling when someone was approaching that never failed to amaze her as she had been quite silent on her way here. "Im sorry for disturbing you Akiko.. I didnt realize I had walked this far." She glanced over her shoulder and saw the smoke from all the hearth fires in the village.  
  
"Oh well.. I needed to speak with you anyway." She was surprised to hear him voice what she had just about said herself. "Its about that girl that they brought into the village."  
  
Kotori swallowed past the lump that had formed in her throat. "What of her?" Kaori asked careful to keep her voice light and calm.  
  
"She isnt precisely how she appears." Akiko's calm blue eyes turned to hers. She could see the worry that he had, but would not voice. "I know of what you want to tell me.. Yes she is asking to meet us tonight at the gate and I would advise against it except for the fact that there is no way that I would miss it." She nodded and sat down in the grasses.  
  
Akiko watched his woman-child sit in the high grasses. Her entirety that was her, was buried in the grasses. Walking to where he had last seen her, he crouched down in front of her. "Am I no longer appealing to you?" His cool eyes were now guarded and closed to her. For all she could tell, he may as well have been speaking of the weather.  
  
"I find you no more appealing than does the flower to the sun." She said after thinking for a little while. "Is that a satisfactory answer for you?"  
  
"A little flowery for my needs.. but yes it is sufficient." Leaning forward he pressed his lips to hers. Akiko inhaled her scent, entranced by all the beauty she possessed. She amazed him at every turn. Now was no different. Kaori slid her hands around his back and pulled him til his body touched all of hers. Akiko sighed. "Kaori.. no.. W-we cannot.." He took in a deep breath and pushed himself to sit on his haunches. "I'll meet you by the gate where she ordered us to meet her.. other than that I think it would be in your best interest to go back to the village."  
  
Kaori felt shamed. Her face heated as she shoved to her feet. "Good day Akiko..." She turned on her heel and marched away with a straight back. 'I cant believe I actually acted on what I wanted... and then he pulls this kind of a stunt?' She groaned as she slammed onto her bed when she reached her room.  
  
Author's Note: I am so extremely sorry for all of you dedicated readers to whom I took so long in putting out this chapter.. I plan on writing shorter ones that wont take me as long to put out just so that you all know.. *is muffled by InuYasha's hand*  
  
InuYasha: You blabber too much.. Just let them know the basics and go on  
  
Miroku: *thwaps InuYasha in the head* Let her go baka  
  
Akiko: I WHAT?!?... I told her no?.. good god.. that would be the day-ahem I mean uh yeah morales are the best..  
  
Kaori: Goodness.. Im here with a bunch of pervs...  
  
Sango: Not all of us are that badly off there Kaori.. thank you for lumping us together.  
  
Danielle: *bites InuYasha's hand* Kay now that everyone is happy and hunky dory.. Stay tuned for next weeks episode where Kagome talks with Akiko and Kaori... Mayhap a bit of angst... maybe a bit of lecherism?-  
  
Miroku: Me! Its about me!  
  
Danielle: *eyes Miroku* riiight... any way thank you for your patience and your support I didnt put out anything for a while due to emotional difficulties.. but all is better more or less.. so I have free time with which to write ;) OH I almost forgot.. if you want to translate what Kaori was saying all you have to do is take the alphabet and list the letters.. then beneath that list the alphabet backwards and there you have the code for it ^^ lazy arent I? 


	7. Free Speech Carries with it Some Freedom...

Chapter 7: Free speech carries with it some freedom to listen.  
  
Disclaimer: No matter how much I whine.. and beg.. and wimper.. and howl.. no one seems to want to let me own the precious hanyou *sniffles* lol yeah right!  
  
-Inu-Yasha- Hey.. whats that supposed to mean? *Danie pats Inu on head* Oi! get off!  
  
-Danie- Its fine Inu.. no one expects you to get it anyway.. *sighs* on with the fic...  
  
Kagome stood waiting in the glade that she had asked Kaori and Akiko to meet her at. Her now elongated ears twitched slightly from their position on the top of her head. She thought for a moment on how Akiko seemed to take to her... and was grateful he didnt have the eyesight she did just in case he decided to bring a bow and a few arrows to fire into her chest.  
  
Chibi InuYasha lay at her feet watching something wriggle around in the high grasses. "Kagome?" He whispered. She looked down at him waiting for him to continue. "I dont like these people... please.. can we go?"  
  
"InuYasha.. I have to talk to these people.. they need my help.." Kagome said as she hunkered down to his level. "Kind of just like you need my help ne?" She ruffled his hair lightening his darkened mood at having to subject himself to other's presences. Kagome felt something stiffen on the back of her neck. InuYasha sat up. "Kagome?... do you feel something?"  
  
Kagome peered over the tops of the grasses to see something moving through it at an alarming rate and straight for them. Its scales reflected all the wonderful colors of the world and danced before her eyes willing her to stand. "Kagome dont look at it! Please Kagome!" InuYasha tugged at her shirt front hard enough to tear it to shreds but the compulsion was too strong to ignore.  
  
Her legs moved for her. Making her step towards the mosterous beast that rose up to greet her. Ifs face appeared to slither and move in the moonlight til she realized it was completely made up of snakes that hissed and writhed in mass. Kagome felt herself start to slip backwards as the mouth opened and followed her down. 'Kaori.. Akiko... Im sorry that I couldnt help you.. InuYasha..' Her eyes flickered towards the child quivering in fear behind her and her heart shivered in her chest thinking of the man at the other end of time waiting on her to come back to him.  
  
She watched in a haze as the child's mouth formed her name on his lips but everything was strangely silent except for the beating of her heart in her chest.  
  
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InuYasha held Kagome's body close to his. He had awoken to a pain in his heart that something was wrong.. something was out of kilter and he couldnt fix it. He gasped as he watched Kagome's body disappear and reappear.. flickering in his arms. "Oh GOD!!" Kaori and Akiko heard him scream and rushed to see what had happened.  
  
When they reached him Miroku and Sango were already there holding onto her chilled hands. Her face paled to that frightening shade of white that had plagued it on the way to take her to Kaeda-baba's hut. InuYasha clamped down on the panic and fear that was eating away at his stomach. "If this is your fault you will live to regret it.." He promised darkly to Kaori and Akiko as he looked over Kagome's head.  
  
They frowned at eachother. 'I didnt expect this to happen did you?.. Do you suppose Kangrenich already knows that Kagome is there?.. or that he already knows what she is about?' Kaori tried her best to keep from looking panic-stricken at Akiko so as to not give away that she was talking to him through her mind linked to his. Her brown curling hair fell in a mass over her pallid friend's face.  
  
Akiko sat back on his haunches not willing to look at her and think on what he might have caused. A small touch on his hands brought his blue gaze right into an identical one. "Sango.."  
  
"Akiko.. whats going on in the past?.. We have to know.." Her breath caught in her throat as she looked at her friend fade and flicker back.  
  
"I-I dont know.. I just dont know." Akiko said before he felt something warm spill down his cheeks. He heard Kaori choke on her tears while his fell freely down his cheeks.  
  
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Chibi InuYasha watched in mounting horror as his surrogate mother was about to be killed. "Kagome!" His small voice didnt seem to carry over the deafening silence that he felt was bringing her death closer and closer to him. When her eyes rolled up in her head and the monster prepared itself to strike her, he rushed from his spot as if something had just released him to leap and take the painful sting upon himself. He felt his body become heavy and lax as his eyes closed and a heavy smile settled upon his lips.  
  
Kagome awoke from her drug-like daze to see InuYasha sprawled at her feet, his precious blood leaking out of his side from a ghastly wound inflicted by the monstrous beast before her. A rage filled her veins as she watched the monster writhe in the grasses waiting for InuYasha to bleed himself dry. She let loose a cry as she leapt high into the air aiming to slam into the giant monster. In mid-leap she felt an odd euphic feeling wash over her body and realized that she would have to close her eyes to fight.  
  
Growling, she squeezed her eyes shut and forced her body to slam down as hard and fast as she could. As she descended from the heavens, she felt her rage hone into something keener, it burned brightly in her chest until she felt that it would burn her alive.  
  
InuYasha watched even with his vision slightly hazed of blood he could see Kagome glow in the night.. her body shifting from hanyou form to full-fledged demon in less than a minute. "Ka..go..me.." the slight noise leaked from his mouth before he felt unconsciousness reach for him.  
  
Kagome heard him from in the air. It only served to fuel her rage making it ever more easier for her to focus on the heat. When she came down, instead of feeling a scaley hide meet her, she found herself stuck in a gellatinous mixture that held her fast. Her features streatched themselves and changed. Her jaw became elongated and she could feel fangs growing down into her gums. Her tail that had just appeared streached itself out and her body was compelled to all fours as she grew taller and longer. When the transformation was complete she howled as she reared back to attack the monster that had attacked her little ward.  
  
The snake monster hissed as it saw the transformation of the ages. "Hanyousss like yourssself arent ssssuppossed to be able to sshape sssshift like that." Its voice sounded like nails scrapping on a chalkboard.  
  
Kagome couldnt think of anything through the red haze that had taken over her vision; ordering her to kill the danger in her path. Her gigantic paw raised itself and slammed down on the creatures head. Her fangs were revealed as she grinned evilly at her opponent. She tried to say anything.. something to make it feel before she crushed its skull but she could not. Pressing down with her massive paw she heard it crunch like a roach under a shoe. A hiss escaped her jaw as she felt the calm claim her from her kill.  
  
Akiko stood rooted to the spot. He had seen Kagome go through all the phases she possessed. 'If she could do that why didnt she just crush the village and have at it like that?' he thought as he watched her change back into the petite woman he had seen earlier that morning. Her clothes were more or less useless he figured as he looked down at her when her detransformation was complete.  
  
Kaori stepped up next to him. Her hands shook as she gripped his arm. "What is she?" Her eyes were wide in her face as she looked down at the strange woman before her.  
  
"Whatever you do Kaori.. you will not speak of this at the village.. and you will not be afraid of her do you hear me?" Akiko said as he glanced down at her. His blonde hair blew in his face as he surveyed the surroundings. "She just killed what was eating the neighboring villages if I am correct.. she should be a hero.. and she seems to have been protecting this child demon." He said as he moved closer to InuYasha. The little boy's hands were clasped in the ground showing the pain and agony his mind hadnt let his body register. "We need to get him to the village doctor-"  
  
"Akiko.. you know as well as I do.. that Kangrenich would not touch them.. they are part demon and he would sense it beyond a doubt.." Kaori said quietly.  
  
He let his ice-blue gaze rest on her. "If you seriously want anything to progress between us you will help me help them." He said curtly.  
  
"That is not-" Kaori started before she saw him give her a calculating glance then turn away. He got down to his knees and picked up the child demon. Opening the kid's mouth he cut his wrist on one of the fangs that resided there. His blood pooled in InuYasha's throat before he coughed and sputtered coming to slight consciousness. The blood went down his throat as Kaori looked horrified at what she was witnessing. "What are you doing?!"  
  
"Im only doing what I should be.. some demons heal by taking in blood and I know that if Im not ill and he is.. and he is obviously lacking in blood... he can use at least a quarter of mine before I would be unfit to carry him.. which is where you come in because he isnt that heavy at all and he should be able to handle you jostling him about slightly while he heals." Akiko said calmly as he shifted the tiny boy in his lap.  
  
"Or you could make matters better by taking that girl there and doing the same thing.. she by no means needs as much blood as he does-" he cut himself off when he heard the horrified squeal that meant a certain 'no' from her end. "Fine.. Ill do it myself." He glared at her over his shoulder. "Get your useless ass back to the village."  
  
Kaori let her breath hiss out from her mouth as she swallowed her pride and moved slowly and cautiously toward the girl from just that morning. Opening her mouth she couldnt find any fangs like what the boy had, only regular human teeth. For some reason this frightened her more so than if she would have found more dangerous looking teeth. Taking her boot- knife out Kaori cut her hand across the palm and heard a snickering "baka" from behind her. Grimacing she parted the girls lips and fisted her wounded hand digging her nails into the freshly made wound.  
  
The salt from her fingertips burned all though her arm as she squeezed out her blood into the opened mouth below. She hissed some more as she felt her hand shake from the pain of her self inflicted wound.  
  
Kagome's eyes parted open as she tasted something coppery in her mouth. She swallowed the warm liquid heedless to recognize what it was. When some more spattered on her face after she closed her mouth, she jolted upright only to have her world tilt and spin on its axis in the most jarring way. "Damnit.." Her voice sounded strangely to her ears as if it were readjusting itself to her body.  
  
Her eyes opened only to see brown curls and dark eyes set in the most lovely face.. "Kaori.." She sighed. Trying to sit up she felt her blood pound in her head. "Where's-Inu!" she called as she saw him laying in Akiko's lap blood spattered across his small features. Moving over to him as fast as her recovering body would allow, she collapsed beside him and stroked his hand.  
  
When she saw Akiko recut his wrist when the blood stopped flowing she growled at him. "Dont be an idiot.. human blood isnt good for that.." Her eyes widened when she didnt recognize the voice that had issued from her lips.  
  
"And what are you going to do Miss? Cut your own wrist and give it to him?" Akiko said sarcastically but groaned when he saw her scratch her arm with her nails and blood gushed forth. InuYasha's small mouth worked as he took in the new flow. "How much will he need?"  
  
"From me? Only a little bit more before he can walk a few meters.. from you.. you wouldve bled yourself to death before you gave him enough to be able to move his eyelids." She blew out a breath when he opened his eyes and sat up.  
  
"Kagome!" He called as he saw her laying beside him. "You're alright? I saved you?"  
  
Kagome grinned. "Yes Im alright and you did a very fine job of saving me." She tweaked his nose as she closed her eyes. When her eyes opened next she was in a strange hut and the day had passed by again showing the stars in the hole in the roof of the hut. "How vintage." She remarked as she looked around her in the smoke hazed room.  
  
"Ahh.. so youre awake are you?" A stranger's voice came from the another room.  
  
"Well Im answering you arent I?" Kagome said not ready to be happy so soon from waking up. "I need to speak with Kaori and Akiko.."  
  
A short rotund man stepped from behind one of the many curtains leading from the room. Her ears twitched as she regaurded him. "And what might you be wanting with the lord's son and the rich man's daughter?" His hands were meaty and looked greasy with whatever concoction he had been messing with in the back room. His brown apron was covered in splotches of multi-colored substances and Kagome didnt even want to know what half of them were for if the looks of his home were any indication to what he did.  
  
On the wooden walls she saw plenty of heads and paraphenillia of demons.. along with a few human attributes that she would never have liked to see in all her years. Skulls were lining his shelves and she would bet anything that they were real and not like the fake ones she could pick up at home in the stores for halloween. Various weapons were positioned below the skulls which had attracted her attention so raptly. She took note of the different spears and bows. There were also needle-like looking things with red strings trailing from their ends.  
  
"Like my decorating style do you?" His gravelly voice brought her back to the man standing a few feet from her.  
  
"Sir to be perfectly straight I am more than disgusted and thoroughly dissatisfied with your decorating tastes. And if I never enter this shack again in all of my natural human born life it would be too soon." She said as she gave the walls one last glance before looking back at the greasy man before her. Kagome looked at his hair or lack-there-of and figured that if it werent for the messy gunk that seemed to be scattered through it he might actually be a light brown color more than the ink black that it appeared to be. "You need a bath." She said before she thought.  
  
She was startled when he burst out into laughter. "So thats what you were studying me for." He let loose another chuckle. Then he sobered and walked up to her. His hands reached down to touch her forehead but she shyed away from his touch. "You wash your hands.. then we'll talk about you taking my temperature.. besides I know Im just fine thank you." Kagome said tersely. "Where is my-"  
  
"Your little hanyou boy is in the other room dont worry.. Just through that right there." He pointed to a little screen and was surprised to see the bed empty before he could finish his sentance. Shaking his head he bustled back to his apothecary room.  
  
"InuYasha.." Kagome whispered as she saw the sleeping boy. "A-are you okay?" She asked quietly as she stroked his forehead. The beads rattled as someone passed through the doorway. "Who are you and what do you want?" She said without sparing a backwards glance.  
  
"Already running the place like you own it?" She heard laughter in his voice. Turning she spotted the blonde Adonis sitting in a chair behind her. "In any case shouldnt I be the one asking you those exact same questions?"  
  
Kagome sighed and sat with her back resting against InuYasha's small cot. "I am Higurashi.. Kagome Higurashi and I am wanting you to cooperate with me." She said quietly.  
  
"Cooperate with you in what?" Akiko asked as he stretched his legs out before him.  
  
She eyed him with disdain as she stretched herself slightly and poped her neck. "Youre a real playboy jerk at this age arent you?" She shrugged and moved on before he could be offended or amused at what she had said. "I am wanting you to stay away from some certain people.. to prevent future problems..." She scratched her head as she blew out a breath. "I cant really explain it in the best way imaginable.. but I can get as close to as much as I know as long as this doesnt change the course of fate.." She frowned as she scrunched her toes up trying to wiggle around as she thought.  
  
"Course of fate?.." He frowned at her. "What do you mean?.. Are you from the future? or more like a prophetess?"  
  
Shei sighed. "..Well technically either or would pertain to me it doesnt necessarily make a difference to me how you view me just as long as you listen." Her eyes flew up to meet his. The vibrant colors that shone in hers and were lacking in his entranced him without her knowing it as she told him the entire story as she knew it. "So more or less you are looking at your future sister or love depending on how you act on my words.. you may take them or leave them it doesnt make one bit of difference to me and depending on what you decide is what I do."  
  
Akiko sat back in the chair staring at her as if she had sprouted another head. "I.. me?.. her?" He ran his hands through his hair. "You do realize this is something that I will have to take into a more.. serious.. oh how do I put it.. I need some time to think this over.." He glanced at the floor then met her unnerving gaze again. "How long do I have?"  
  
She started to laugh. "I assume you mean before you fall in love with her? No matter youll do it no matter what I tell you or dont tell you. Id say its soon because you only have a few months before your village will be destroyed."  
  
"What?!" Akiko gasped.  
  
"Oh did I leave that detail out?" She closed her eyes fatigue starting to take over her body. She blew out her pent up breath. "Yeah.. more or less one of your trusted villagers is going to ruin your life and exterminate your village permanently wiping out any traces that you ever existed at all." Her body sagged against the bed as darkness edged her vision.  
  
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InuYasha watched as her body stabilized. "So I take it we're not moving on as planned due to this minor set back?" Akiko said sarcastically. InuYasha shot him a glare of hatred over Kagome's head.  
  
"For some reason I cant remember my past as it was.. I think something changed." InuYasha said as he stared at Kagome's serene face. She had stopped the major fading a few hours ago and she was sleeping peacefully in his arms.  
  
Miroku looked around but couldnt see Sango anywhere near the campsite. Looking toward her bag he saw that Kirara was missing as well. He blew out his breath. "I guess everyone will defend themselves in their own way." He whispered to himself as he contemplated the major scare he had gotten during the course of the day. 'Nothing to make you realize how much you love someone until you cant have them anymore, ne Miroku?' Kaori's voice sounded in his head and gave him that unnerved creepy feeling that always came with it.  
  
"Yes Kaori.. that is always the case." He frowned at her as he relaxed his body. "What do you want?" He rubbed his sore back as he stretched his legs out.  
  
"I am your friend Miroku.. please dont talk to me like Im your inferior." Kaori said quietly reminding him that she was capable of using her lips just as well as her mind.  
  
"Kaori.. Im sorry." He sighed. "Im just tired.. so so very tired.. can you leave me be for a bit while I try to sleep or something to assauge this problem?" He felt her hands undo his pony-tail and release his hair letting it brush his shoulders slightly. Her hand opened his and she placed his hair band in it. "Thank you." He murmured before sleep claimed him.  
  
InuYasha watched the exchange between the two. "..Dont you ever feel.. jealous?" He addressed Akiko. Looking at Kagome he thought of all the times Kouga had come to 'claim' her as 'his' when she didnt belong to either of them.. but he felt jealousy stirring in his veins everytime the wolf would get anywhere near her. Sometimes it was so bad he could taste it in his mouth but he had always brushed it off as something minor like wanting to desperately squash the wolf into the ground until he could feel himself coming out the other side.  
  
Akiko glanced at the hanyou out of the corner of his eyes. "Of Kaori flirting with other men? No.. not really.. she just gets horny every once in a while.. and she cant very well scratch that itch with me.. so Im fine with it.." He fell back on his arms to look at the star studded sky. "I love her InuYasha.. I cant bear to see her with them.. so I just dont think about it more or less otherwise you would have at least one dead comrade on your hands.. Kaori appears to be the same way as Im contemplating Sango." Akiko heard Inu's indrawn breath. Turning his head to look at the hanyou he eyed him cooly. "Does that bother you?"  
  
"No.. not at all.. but I just wish.. you know if you do.." InuYasha tried to start up a good reason as to why he shouldnt and not sound like he actually cared. But he found it terribly difficult. When Akiko just stayed staring at him he shrugged. "Well you know you would be killing Miroku's hope that Sango loves him ne? As he does believe that Sango is a virtuous woman and that she would only give herself to those she loves."  
  
Akiko nodded. "But thats the thing.. she loves all of us... Kaori, you, Kagome, Miroku.. myself.. so she really wouldnt be going against what he believes-"  
  
"What about the virtuous part?.. Have you pried into her past that much to see if she had a past lover or something?" InuYasha looked down his nose at Akiko. "I dont think that is the best thing for anyone to do.. besides if you do.. doesnt that mean you have no faith in Kagome being able to suceed for you to be able to.. 'scratch' your itch with.." He nodded his head in Kaori's general direction.  
  
He was startled to hear Akiko burst out laughing. His eyes widened with shock before they narrowed at the blond man. "Who wouldve thought.." He gasped for breath between his words. "That you.. you of all people.. would be able.. to make such sense out of this." He clutched his sides as he rolled to the side.  
  
"Oi! Are you making fun of me?!" InuYasha demanded.  
  
Akiko sobered up just as fastly as he had started laughing. "No I am not.. actually I am quite impressed that you can formulate such a convincing argument and so much quicker than I wouldve ever suspected of you." Akiko nodded to Kagome even though he knew she wasnt awake then trailed off to Kaori.  
  
InuYasha noted that Sango seemed to be missing and Miroku was asleep. Akiko had just taken Kaori and led her into the woods somewhere. "Eh so trusting in Kagome theyre willing to sin morally eh?"  
  
"Thats not how it is.." Her voice was so weak he almost didnt hear it. A pale hand raised up and cupped his cheek. "InuYasha.." His golden gaze honed in on her. Kagome's eyes were wide open and staring up into his trustingly even though he had almost lost her today.  
  
"Kagome." He groaned her name as he hugged her tightly to his chest. "Oh Kagome.." He pressed a chaste kiss to her temple. "What happened that made me almost lose you today?"  
  
Kagome smiled at him. "I almost lost you is the thing..." She glanced at the woods behind him. "I was standing in the grasses waiting on someone to meet me... and I was standing with you.. and then we were attacked by a monster.. and oh InuYasha.. Im sorry that I couldnt help it.. it's force was just so compelling I couldnt do anything but obey.."  
  
"Shhh.. Its okay." He rocked her slightly hoping that no one would come and intrude but hoping that maybe they would so that he wouldnt have to be so uncomfortable trying to comfort her.  
  
"I did something different this time.. When I got mad.. because you were hurt.. trying to protect me.. something went different.." She frowned slightly as she fought to breathe calmly. "I.. you know how Sesshomaru can change into a gigantic dog looking demon?.." At InuYasha's nod she sighed. "I can.. I did that.. it was.. it was so exhilarating.. but.. scary.. Im.. trying to readjust my voice to my body.. as I suppose I said something while I was in that form that kinda threw my body of kilter or something.."  
  
InuYasha looked down at her. Her eyes shown up at him under the stars. "InuYasha.. I think.. I dont know that Ill be able to make it through.. this is so hard.. so very hard.." Her body shuddered with wracking coughs.  
  
"I take it that most of the damage you sustained came onto this side of your consciousness?" He prayed that it was so.. he didnt want to think that she had been terribly beaten and bashed in the past but he couldnt help but think it was so. 


	8. Here With Me

Chapter 8: Here With Me  
  
Disclaimer: No I don't own Inu and I doubt that you guys would believe me even if I did say I did ^^  
  
InuYasha: Of course they wouldn't believe you! You're a compulsive liar!  
  
Danielle: *twitch* you push it boy and I'll have you do something totally embarrassing in here...  
  
InuYasha: *grumbles* resorting to threats.. coward  
  
Danielle: Oh would you shut up you great oaf? Anyway good patient people, now that my Hard Drive has been replaced I can go on with the fic.. yes yes I know you are very excited ^^ I am too hehe  
  
InuYasha wondered fleetingly if he would believe Kagome was touched in the head if he didnt remember being there himself. He listened to her description of what had happened after he had attacked that demon at such a young age. His claws ran through her hair as he listened to her tell about her worries on what was going to happen. She explained about what she had thought about the man in the hut and how she wondered who he was really and if he would hinder or help her in her cause.  
  
"InuYasha..." He met her eyes when he heard her say his name. "A-am I doing the right thing?"  
  
He nodded imperceptibly making her think she mightve imagined it. Then he sighed. "Kagome, how am I supposed to know if it's the right thing or not?" He looked deeply into her eyes. "I mean you're rewriting history.. or rather making it happen more or less.. I've been thinking and-" He was cut off when she sat up and moved out of his lap where he had been holding her. Strangely enough when she left him he felt his heat leave him as well making him feel cold and barren til he shook off the strange feeling. "Kagome... I am sorry that.. that this has happened..." He remembered how it had started. All because of that damned fang. "Kagome." He said sternly.  
  
He eyed him over her shoulder. "InuYasha.. I think.. I think I'll go back.. you obviously don't need me here.. and I'll complete what I need to and be back before too long for you." She said her voice hitched slightly but his hand had shot out and gripped her jaw. His lips pressed to hers. She felt a languid heat unfurl in her stomach. "I-Inu-" she gasped. But he cut her off with another firm press of his lips to hers.  
  
Her hands moved up his forearms and rested on the backs of his hands as they cupped her cheeks. "Kagome?" She opened her eyes blinking trying to get rid of the haze that seemed to affect her vision. "Kagome." He repeated and she focused in on his amber eyes. "Please be careful." He warned her as he caressed her lips with his yet again.  
  
Kagome felt her stomach drop out of her body yet again. His hands gripped her arms keeping her in place. She had no idea when he had moved them from her face but was grateful that she could at least keep her head up. What is wrong with me?! We've kissed before but.. good God almighty! She thought to herself while she tried to make the fluttery feeling go away.  
  
InuYasha had no clue what had possessed him to do this to her but he wasn't going to back down when he wasn't getting a negative response. This had to be the third time they had kissed but it felt so different from the other times for some reason. He let his hands travel from her arms to her sides and pulled her so that she was pressed bodily to him. Feeling her heat through her thin, worn shirt, he had to feel it against his skin. Moving his fingers deftly, he managed to slide his hands up to under her shirt resting on her ribs and rubbing light circles. Her fingers explored his hair, then finding his ears, proceeded to stroke and touch them til he was about to burst.  
  
A loudly cleared throat made the pair jump and blush having been caught. Kaori and Akiko stood just a few feet from them with a raised eyebrow at their flushed faces and rumpled clothing. "Kagome.. I think you're back a little early?" said Kaori. Akiko said nothing but was trying to hide the smirk that was worming it's way across his features.  
  
Kaori, however, was frowning and looked seriously aggrieved that Kagome was back so early. "Kagome you do realize that when you're over here all you're doing is just prolonging the time that you have to spend over there?" She said her vioce slightly worried as she moved closer to her. Kagome was surprised when she dropped to her knees and hugged her tightly tears coursing their way down Kaori's pretty face.  
  
Kagome patted her back awkwardly not too sure as to what to do or what had even brought on the assault of tears. "Kaori.. are you alright? Nothing is amiss. You and Akiko are just fine in the past and I've only been here a few minutes."  
  
Kaori pulled out of Kagome's grasp and gripped the younger girl's shoulders. "Kagome PROMISE me you'll be careful... You have to promise me." Her voice was steady and calm no matter that her face almost scared Kagome.  
  
"It'll be alright Kaori. There is nothing to worry about I'll be just- " but before she could finish off her sentance she was jerked back to the past and fell back onto the dirt. InuYasha jerked at finding her collapse like that so soon. "Get away from her!" He hissed at them as he moved back to her side and scooped her up and shook her slightly hoping, yet knowing she was already in the past and there was no way to bring her back until she felt the need to come herself.  
  
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Kagome found herself lying in an uncomfortable position on the floor next to chibi-InuYasha's bed. He peered at her from over the edge of his bed. "Kagome.. are you okay?" He looked nervous and she could imagine why. Waking up in a foriegn place with some stranger in front of you. She eyed Akiko just as Kaori burst into the room. "Hey are you alright?"  
  
Kagome nodded and turned to InuYasha sitting on the bed with him. "You can tell Kaori what I told you I suppose if you trust her not to say anything." Kagome said.  
  
Kaori favored her with a sour look. "What do you mean 'trust her not to say anything'" she said to them both, yet only looking at Akiko.  
  
"Listen... I've been sent here with a purpose. I won't leave until I have finished but there is the slight thing of no one else knowing except those involved. And unfortunately you are in it up to your eyeballs so.." She trailed off. "Unless you want all of us to die and you to be cursed I suggest you make sure not to-" She was cut off by a loud explosion outside of the apothecary's hut.  
  
Everyone rushed outside to see what was the matter. Kagome gasped to see a younger Sesshomaru tearing up hut houses left and right. "Where is that half-breed mutt InuYasha!" He demanded as he waved another crack of his whip.  
  
Kagome shoved InuYasha into Kaori and Akiko. "Guard him with your lives and make sure you take care of the other villagers. I'll take care of this." She ran off aiming straight for Sesshomaru.  
  
Akiko grasped InuYasha even though the half-demon was tugging and trying to run towards where Kagome was going. Realizing that it was useless, he let loose a scream. "KAGOME! DON'T! DON'T GO!" He screamed at the top of his lungs. Fortunately, between the screams of the dying and the wounded, his cry went unheard.  
  
Kagome ran straight up to the young youkai lord's back and rammed into him effectively hurtling him into a neary-by hut that had already been half-way demolished anyway. She watched him jump up from the attack and shake off the dirt and dust from the boards that had fallen on top of him. "Who dared to seal thier death warrant by attacking me?" He said as cooly and calmly as if he were just watching a bug cross his path. Although his face was a tinge of red in a right fit over having been taken by surprise. When his eyes lit on the defiant form of Kagome he scoffed. "A mere human girl? You wish to tangle with me? A youkai lord?" His voice seemed to relay that he wasn't overtly concerned but he would kill her.  
  
Taking a stance InuYasha had taught her, she waited on the young Sesshomaru to step from the rubble to fight. His hair was shorter and his features were more adorable than anything she had ever seen. His pert little nose had a light sprinkle of freakles across the bridge of it and she was certain he had to detest that fact with every fiber of his being.. at this age at least. She smirked. "I can hardly believe it's you Sesshomaru. I mean you just look so teeny and sweet-" She was cut off when he flew at her. She absorbed his force and rolled head over heels with him trapped in her arms. She landed with her knees in his back and her left elbow cupped around his chin.  
  
Sesshomaru shot a glare over his shoulder at Kagome while he struggled in her lock hold. His claws dug at her arm trying to dislodge it long enough for him to get out. But even as his nails peeled her skin it healed back just as fastly both amazing and disgusting her. "So-you're-a- demon-as-well" He gasped out in the chances he got to say anything. Kagome gasped when he took his teeth and sank them into her flesh when he had worked her arm up enough. shaking him off she kicked him and watched him roll along in the dirt.  
  
He just laid where he had stopped rolling. Kagome watched with a sort of detattched fascination as he seemed dead. But she knew he wasnt. Moving as close to him as she dared she taunted him and watched as he flung his poison tipped claws at her thinking her just behind him. She laughed as she looked down on him and stepped on his outflung hand. He gasped as the rocks under his arm bit into his skin.  
  
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Sesshomaru clutched his head as memories assaulted him. Rin looked on in horror as he gasped in pain and sank to his knees. Jaken had passed out from the shock of seeing Sesshomaru in actual pain. Rin registered that the demon toad was no longer crying aloud about what they were going to die from or what demon he guessed was going to come murder them all as Sesshomaru was no longer what he used to be.  
  
Rin reached out her hand to touch her youkai lord when he turned his animal eyes on her and made her freeze in her tracks for a moment or two. Then she moved forward remembering when she had first met him and she grasped his wrist in hers. After a time the pain receded and he came to herself. His eyes lit on Jaken first and he couldn't help but feel angry that the toad didn't have more faith in him than that. Letting out an exasperated breath he cupped Rin's cheek. He watched partially interested as a flush crept across her face. "We're leaving Rin." He said quietly and turned on his heel headed in the opposite direction of where they had been going.  
  
She turned and looked at the unconscious frog on the ground. "Um.. Sesshomaru-sama we aren't taking Jaken with us?" She said as she tugged on his pant's leg. Sesshomaru didn't spare a look back at the toad but continued on his journey determined to get to where he was necessary before She did.  
  
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Kagome watched as she allowed Sesshomaru up to his feet. He held his injured wrist at a odd angle but didn't wince or make any other sign that he recognized he was even remotely damaged. His face twisted in what she assumed was a smile.  
  
Then Kagome watched as his jaw elongated and he transformed into that hideous dog-beast that she had seen him do only once before. She frowned at him slightly. "I really wish you wouldn't be so rash as to do that." All he could do was bark at her and she knew he would regret that come later.  
  
InuYasha watched from the trees as time seemed to fly. First he watched his brother transform, just as father had always forbidden him to do. And next thing he knows he sees another dog demon transform. This new one was a greyish color and more sleek than Sesshomaru was. He drew the only conclusion there was. "Kagome." He whispered awe-struck.  
  
The giant dogs rushed at eachother. InuYasha heard every indrawn gasp of horror as they met and snapped at each other. Sesshomaru's forked tongue flicked out as he panted after they had thrown eachother. He prayed fervently to anything divine that would listen to protect Kagome and keep her safe from his brother.  
  
InuYasha could remember too many occasions when he had to fight his elder brother for no cause what-so-ever. He had lost every time. It did not bode well for his worrying mind. The demons circled eachother seemingly sizing eachother up then they rushed again. This time Kagome sank her fangs into Sesshomaru's shoulder and rolled with him taking down trees as they fought for dominance.  
  
Sesshomaru panted as they rolled. He tried bringing up one of his massive paws to shove her off but she bit harder and deeper causing him to stop. Letting go with her teeth, Kagome pushed her paw down on Sesshomaru's neck and growled visciously at him. Betting on her sense of fairness, Sesshomaru detransformed back into his human-looking form and watched as she backed off and did as well.  
  
"No! No! No!" Shrieked InuYasha. He had seen this tactic many times before. "Kagome don't!" But it was too late. He watched as her dog form shrunk until she dissappeared beneath the tops of the trees.  
  
Kagome glanced in the general direction of where the villagers had run. InuYasha... Then Sesshomaru entered her line of vision and smirked at her. "Worried about the half-breed are you?" He said smugly. Turning on his heel, he made to rush off to go where they had hidden. Kagome dived at him and was surprised when he turned and caught her. His claws dug into her throat cutting off her airway. "Idiot. You have no idea on the rules of fighting do you?" He asked her as he smirked.  
  
Her fingers dug at his trying to dislodge them as purple dots began to appear before her eyes. Then while she was hanging in mid-air, a deep calmness stole over her body.  
  
Sesshomaru watched Kagome as she first struggled and paniced, then she seemed to just go lax, even though he knew she wasn't dead yet or anywhere near it. After a moment or two of this laxness, he shook her only to have her rattle him. While he was still off-balance she swung her legs up to wrap around his upper arm and gripped his forearm with her hands. Pushing with her hips and legs, she thrust his elbow out to where it looked like it was going to bend in an unnatural way. Sesshomaru cried out in pain as he ran for the nearest tree to smash her against to make her let go. She dropped just before he rammed into the trunk.  
  
Newly enraged, Sesshomaru let out a great roar as he charged at her. His poisoned claws ripped through the air to land on nothing. Kagome spun around him and barely managed to avoid him. Employing everything that InuYasha had taught her, she flipped back and waited on him to turn around again. When he did he swiped his claws again leaving a green trail in their wake, giving her an estimate on how much poison he had pumped forth into his fist. "All that anger is going to inhibit your fighting abilities." She said as she kept him at a distance as she jumped through the trees backwards, leading him farther and farther away from InuYasha and the other villagers.  
  
For some reason that she couldn't fathom, her well-meaning advise only made him angrier. His eyes turned a freakish shade of red and narrowed considerably only concentrating on her. It irked her and pleased her at the same time. "Why do you insist on running away!?" He shouted in an attempt to get a rise out of her.  
  
She just frowned at him. "I told you your anger would get in the way of your judgement didn't I?" He suddenly stopped and looked back towards the village he was supposed to be pillaging for his brother and cursed heavily. Running forward, Kagome took a flying leap and rammed her shoulder into his stomach effectively knocking him off of the tree he had been standing on. His claws sank into her back and poison slid over her back and burned away her clothes and ate at her skin. Ripping his hands sideways, he made deep indentions in her skin. "You will always be marked now!" He said triumphantly.  
  
Kagome bared her fangs at him and let out a feral growl. Gripping him around the waist she forced their way down even faster and heard his back crack as they pounded into the ground. 'So this is what it feels like to be "sat" face first' She thought idlely in the space that she was allowed before Sesshomaru got a hold on his senses enough to start grappling with her in the dirt.  
  
His face was no longer immaculate and fresh. It was smeared with dirt and blood and some of his poison in streaks down his cheeks. She figured if this was how he looked she must be ten times worse for wear. His eyes narrowed at her again as he brought hsi fists around to punch her in the face. Straddling his hips, she gripped his neck and proceeded to strangle him until he went limp enough for her to loosen her grip. "You will never come near InuYasha again-"  
  
"Bitch! You can't order me around!" She proceeded to strangle him again. His legs thrashed around and he bucked his hips trying to dislodge her but to no avail. His fists thumped the ground as he fought for air. "You will leave InuYasha alone.. Never come near him again as long as you live do you understand me?" She said and he nodded acquiescence. Then she knocked him out and carried him back to the village.  
  
No matter that she had just taken Sesshomaru out of the fight there were still innumerable demons terrorizing the village still. Plundering and ransacking what huts they could and attacking what brave villagers had stood up to them.  
  
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Kaori and Akiko stood side-by-side in the middle of the villagers. Tanrakuteki ran up to their side panting. His black eyes flashing in excitement even though his face showed worry. His brown wavy hair hang lank and greasy down his back. "We need to help those who are still in the village. Only that brave young girl that was tied up in the village earlier volunteered to go down to fight the demons."  
  
InuYasha saw his opportunity to run down and help Kagome as soon as the smelly man ran up to them. Taking his chances, he ran from Akiko and Kaori as soon as their grip was gone. His eyes scanned the trees ahead of him as he looked for possible demons to be attacking Kagome en masse. He saw one or two demons already slain. It was when he saw Kagome standing near Sesshomaru's limp form fighting off demons that were attacking her screaming about her killing their new leader.  
  
Kagome jerked when she heard the scream giving the demon in front of her ample time to cuff her and knock her into the tree she had proped Sesshomaru on. She watched as the demons advanced on her before consciousness was too much and she blacked out.  
  
Danielle* well.. I got a review from someone telling me that they didnt like Kaori or Akiko.. *sighs* well.. I cant really say that theyre supposed to be loveable.. but.. oh well.. I tried to write as much as I could on this chapter before I had to leave for PKI for the weekend.. so read and review while Im gone I wont be back til Monday.. and I should have another chapter for this ^^ and mayhap the reason *why* Akiko and Kaori are as they are ^^ and the reason Kagome is in the past with Inu.. you'll be full of the new secrets and ready for new ideas lol have a great weekend much love, your esteemed author Danie7 


	9. Inevitable Destiny

Ch 9: Inevitable Destiny  
  
Tanrakuteki ran haphazardly in the debris looking for the weapons hidden in his now collapsed hut. Kaori slipped and fell, slicing her hand on an old sword. "Found one." She called as she hid her hand from Akiko's sight.  
  
Akiko moved to where she was and grasped the handle, jerking the blade out from under the rubble. The blade on the sword was serrated and slightly rusted towards the handle but it would serve its purpose better than most other swords would. Stashing it in his waistband, he started rummaging around where Kaori had slipped and came across a whip that he handed to her.  
  
Tanrakuteki came over to them, already piled with lots of different weapons. Akiko tried to see through all the mass of metal in different stages of decay, to his body but couldn't make anything out until the man started taking off a few swords and handing them to him.  
  
Turning to Kaori, Tanrakuteki handed her a net and some rope. Then digging in the back of his pants, he handed her a few daggers and a sword of her own. "Go hand these out to the villagers that are still fighting and help them with the demons." He ordered quickly before he disappeared back up the dilapidated stairs and into the sunshine... and danger.  
  
Kaori didn't have to be told twice, as soon as the man was gone, she was up the stairs like a flash, running for the nearest family hut she saw that had scuffle noises coming from it. Sweat poured down her back as the heat seemed to intensify as she ran. Slamming open one of the hut doors, she looked into the gloom only to hear slamming going on upstairs. Strengthening her backbone she rushed up to greet whatever was making the noises.  
  
Akiko watched as Kaori darted up the stairs and disappeared into the light. He had caught sight of InuYasha, Kagome, and another demon at the other end of the village. Running as fast as he could, he threw swords to villagers that he saw along the way while he made a bee-line for where he had seen Kagome and InuYasha. The little demon was howling with rage as one of the other demons were currently ganging up on Kagome, who was currently battered and lying on the ground.  
  
Pushing himself as hard as he could, Akiko rushed in and rammed at least two demons through the back with the swords in both of his hands. Jerking them free, he stabbed another two before any of the others could retaliate for killing off their fellow men. Swinging one of his extra swords free, he chopped the head of another one off just as another caught him from behind with his claws, tearing through his muscles and skin.  
  
Taking his sword, he thrust it backwards into the side of the demon holding him. It howled in pain and rage and jerked the sword out of his grip as it tore away from him. But then Akiko was bombarded with plenty of other demons to take his place and do much more harm.  
  
(((  
  
InuYasha watched as the man he despised ran towards him with swords glinting like stars in his hands. As they became blood covered they gleamed with an unearthly red glow. Two of the many were in his hands and he proceeded to stab two demons in the back as fast as he could while he ran forward. Huddling against Kagome, he placed his hand over her chest checking for a pulse. He was happy to find that it was still beating and scooted her nearer Sesshomaru before he ran into the fray, determined not to be shown up by the human pansy.  
  
(((  
  
Akiko felt the little demon brush up against his thigh while the little one pulled loose a dagger from his pants. Slipping back out of the large crowd seemingly unnoticed, InuYasha placed the extra dagger in his pant's leg and made the other one ready to render as much of them, as was possible, helpless.  
  
(((  
  
Kaori burst out of the house having armed the couple that had been trying to1 fight defenseless in the upstairs of their house, but failing miserably and showing it in the blood they had spilled on the floor and that was pouring from wounds on their bodies. The demon in there had been relatively small but very fast. Chucking the weapons at them, she had run straight for the demon only to see it disappear before her eyes.  
  
Remembering the sequence of movements it had made against her caused her body to shudder and she didn't have time for that, so she looked for Akiko, pushing the unpleasant thoughts from her mind.  
  
Instead, she saw a flash of metal in Inu Yasha's hand while demons were circling in front of him, but paying him no heed. She watched as his arm swung out, then he rushed around the group, his dagger in line with their ankles attempting to slice their Achilles tendon but not reckoning on the strength of his own species. Some of them fell down, unable to stand up any longer, but that was only a select few that were on the outside. The inner group instantly fell on him, while the ones that made it on the outside dove at Akiko, claws reared back to deal a fatal blow to any number of parts on his body.  
  
Kaori ran toward them to help in any way possible. Akiko yelled at her to watch out as he fended off a demon that was swinging its claws wildly at him. InuYasha was holding off two of them while he rolled around on the ground between the demon's feet and around their legs. She couldn't understand what he was telling her to watch out for; they were the ones with enemies on their ass. Turning to glance behind her, she only heard the air rip with the force with which the claws sailed towards her before it all went dark in the midst of the mind-blowing, blinding pain.  
  
(((  
  
Akiko watched white faced, as Kaori went down under the attack of the wolf youkai. Then he saw that all the villagers that had been fighting in their homes in the village were coming to help them out. There were still a few demons wriggling on the ground in agony and the ones with their ankles slit, were reaching out trying to grasp his legs with the intent to trip him up giving the unhurt ones a golden opportunity to attack. The villagers all gathered together slitting the throats of those writhing on the ground while two took care of the demon he was fighting and a few others got to InuYasha.  
  
Soon as he saw it was all right for him to go, he ran to Kaori. Her shoulder and part of her chest were torn to shreds but her body was still shaking and twitching as she lay. Blood was seeping out of her body at an alarming rate and he felt some of it soak into his pants. Her face was pallid and deathly, even though she was naturally pale, it was worse than usual. Gathering her up carefully, he picked her up and turned to look for Tanrakuteki as he knew that the man would be able to help him some how.  
  
Rushing through the woods, all he could think about was the girl in his arms and the life that was seeping out of her veins into his clothing. The sun had gone down as they had been fighting but it still cast out a small bit of light through the trees. The stars started to show up in the sky right after the moon. He clutched her tighter to his body and ran harder trying to find out where the brown haired man had ran off to. He had already searched through the village only to turn up short.  
  
(((  
  
Kagome sat up abruptly only to have her world tilt before she made it all the way up. Looking around her from her position on the ground, she saw blood spattered a few meters from her. Sniffing the air, she was most distressed to find that it was Kaori's blood. "Shit!!" She screamed as she tried to get to her feet without falling down. Looking wildly about her at the villagers, she mildly registered that they looked fearfully at her and she couldn't blame them with the blood that was caked under her nails, not to mention the rest of her body, and the deadly look on her face. "Where did they go??" She almost shrieked.  
  
A little boy with stark white hair tugged on the bottom of her shirt. She whirled to look at him startling him to no end. "Ohm... I ah..." Kagome's eyes narrowed waiting on the child to spit out the information. His little brown face scrunched up as he studied her even through her impatience and glaring. "Kaori was hurt really badly. Akiko went to go look for Tanrakuteki who could help her." The little boy looked doubtful about this fact but said nothing more.  
  
"Do you know which way they went and where I could go to find this Tanrakuteki?" Kagome smiled after she had to repeat herself more slowly so the boy could understand her, trying her best not to let her stress show through her face.  
  
"Tanrakuteki held his stuff in that crushed hut over there," the child pointed to a very big pile of rubble. Before she could scream her frustration, the boy spoke again. "But he always came in from that direction." Then he turned and pointed towards the hills.  
  
Kagome spared a glance back at InuYasha where he was sitting with his still unconscious brother. "Take care of him for me till I get back." She said to the little boy before she darted off in the direction the boy pointed and hoped that it was the right way. For some reason, her nose could pick up nothing so she was stuck having to rely on directions.  
  
(((  
  
Tanrakuteki knew they were coming. He knew the outcome. It would all work out just as he needed. He smiled to himself, as he thought of the genius it had taken for him to figure out a way to get rid of the village and most of its population. Now he was going to have a golden opportunity to get rid of Akiko and Kaori, then he could become village leader and incorporate demons into the village and make it world renowned for its ferocity. He would be ruler of the greatest kingdom ever once he was finished with all of his plans he was implementing now. But unfortunately he knew the outcome... but there was a slim chance... very slim chance that he might be able to change the wheel of fate from turning him and in place turn it instead.  
  
It didn't matter that anyone should try to follow Kaori or Akiko as he had already set out postmen to take care of the interference he knew would have to be taken care of. He heard a loud crash as his door gave way to a lot of muscle. 'Akiko.. Right on time.' He thought as he feigned a convincing facade of horror at looking at Kaori.  
  
(((  
  
Kagome raced as fast as she could with all the problems she was running into. Fog had started in as the sun gave its last pitiful ray before dropping off to sleep for the night. The moon had disappeared behind thick clouds and it had grown chilly rather fast. Tree roots seemed to have a life of their own and kept tripping her as she went.  
  
Her skin broke out in goose bumps as her feet pounded on the ground. It was very quiet as she ran through the forest and it was starting to creep her out. 'Aren't there supposed to be owls and stuff hooting as I go? Some animals startled from their nightly resting place?' She thought as she kept going. Nothing had stirred. Nothing had made a sound, not animal, human, or demon.  
  
Pounding footsteps started resounding behind her. It was going at about the same pace as she was.  
  
At first she had figured them to be reflected sound of her own feet but had never recalled that happening before. Then she thought of being followed in the forest right under Inu Yasha's nose and being assaulted by those fangs.  
  
Her breathing started to hitch and she forced herself to calm down. 'Besides... if you were to be hit with those things again, it wouldn't really make much of a difference, now would it?' She thought to herself. 'Yeah.. That's right.. It wouldn't would it?' She heard some branches snap and her imagination whirled with ideas about whatever it was that had assailed her coming back to kill her.. 'If they had intended to kill you wouldn't they have done that when you were laying in a pool of your own blood?' Her head reasoned. Pushing the thoughts away, as they were keeping her from getting to her goal, she forged ahead trying her hardest to get to where Akiko and Kaori were although she had no idea if she was even right.  
  
An ominous growl came from behind her just as something flew through the air, whizzing past her ear. Fear struck her in the heart as she ran. She could hear her labored breathing and her heart beat in tune with each other. Suddenly she was tackled from behind. Rolling with the force of the blow, she gripped the assailant around the sides and forced him to take most of the blow from the fall. She was startled out of her wits when she heard him say, "You, baka, what are you thinking, doing that?"  
  
Her eyes opened wide only to be blocked by long, thick white hair. Brushing it out of the way, she was saddened to see that the fog had gotten so thick that she couldn't even see the face before her; only the general outline. Her hands reached and felt the face that was so familiar to her. "InuYasha?" She murmured half question, half answer to her weary weighted mind.  
  
"About damn time you recognized who I am." He said as his head bent to kiss her.  
  
Something tried to surface in her mind. She couldn't remember why it was wrong for this InuYasha to be here with her when she wanted him so badly. She knew there was something else she needed to do as well and tried to think of what it was that seemed so important to her... the entire reason she was out here in the woods... but she could remember nothing.  
  
(((  
  
Little InuYasha watched, as Kagome darted off into the woods after she had talked to the air obviously seeing something the rest of the village didn't. He looked curiously at the space that she had been looking at apparently seeing something the rest of the villagers had missed as well, as half of them had been giving her odd stares as well.  
  
Giving one last look at his brother, he turned to the man who was trying to organize everyone into groups to help clean up the mess of dead demon bodies and the dead human bodies. He was rotund with a big, thick, black moustache and a loud booming voice, the kind of man that would be heard in the middle of a crowd.  
  
"You wouldn't mind to watch my brother, would you?" He asked as sweetly as he could manage with the worry for Kagome plaguing his mind. The man nodded and InuYasha darted off into the woods for Kagome. At first she had been going along the right trail for Akiko and Kaori, but then she deviated to the left. He couldn't understand why she hadn't let her nose tell her that she was turning way off track  
  
(((  
  
After what seemed like forever, but in reality was only a few minutes, he saw Kagome on her back entangled in a mass of freakishly huge vines and snuggling against one of them, even though the thorns were cutting her most grievously on her face, not to mention all over her body.  
  
One of the thicker vines was wrapped around her torso and squeezing her very hard to where he was surprised her ribs weren't broken yet. As opposed to the ecstasy that was written all over her face she was letting out whimpers and moans of the most excruciating pain from the thorns.  
  
Using his claws, he slashed through the vines. He would've been startled by their groans of pain if he hadn't been so worried about Kagome. As soon as the vines were all sliced off, he dragged her as far away from them as he could. When she was far enough away her many wounds started to seal up at an alarmingly fast rate. Once they were all gone, he almost had her back to where she had deviated from Akiko and Kaori's path.  
  
"InuYasha... Why are you here?" She asked him groggily as she sat up.  
  
She was surprised when he looked at her like she was fit for the loony bin. "I.. Kagome... Let's go get Kaori and Akiko." He said instead.  
  
Her face instantly changed as she leapt to her feet and went dashing off in the directions he told her to go. 'How is he smelling the way to go? And how can he see in this fog?' She wanted to ask but it would take time away from them if she were to distract him.  
  
(((  
  
Tanrakuteki bustled about the cabin looking for the rest of the ingredients he needed. Akiko looked at his slit wrist where it was tied together to Kaori's, her only link to life was him and he would be damned before he let her go... Her shoulder was covered with a tight wrap to keep the blood from flowing out of her body as it had been. "Ah here it is." Tanrakuteki came back with a slave slathered all over a green roll. He laid the roll beside Kaori and pulled his brown hair behind his ears before he removed her bandage. Lifting her by her arm till he could slide the salve under her shoulder and wrap it around her to completely cover her wound.  
  
Akiko watched her as her face began to sweat and her breathing grew labored. Lacing his hand with hers, he stroked her face worriedly. Suddenly a great pain shot through his body from where his arm was attached to Kaori's. He groaned as his vision spotted with black. The door slammed open and he heard voices shouting but he couldn't do anything as the floor decided to move up and meet his face.  
  
Kagome slammed into the hut with all her might. The door gave way under the force with which she used. Tanrakuteki smirked as he sat in the corner. He knew why she was there, had known she would come but hadn't figured she would make it this far. But that didn't matter to him in the least; his major mission was done. "You're a tad late you think?" He said calmly as the grin spread but stopped before his eyes. "Even if you kill me.. These two are already cursed for life and there is nothing that you or anyone else can do about it."  
  
InuYasha looked at Akiko as he was screaming with the pain. Kaori didn't look much better but she wasn't screaming at least. Then Akiko slumped forward to be quiet and still. Fearing that Akiko had died he rushed forward to help. Undoing the ties between Kaori and Akiko, he started to take off anything that seemed like Tanrakuteki touched.  
  
Kagome was filled with rage as she watched Akiko go down face first. Rearing back her claws, she moved forward like lightning to kill him but was surprised when she felt something slide easily through her body and out her back. Her claws, however, made contact with his throat, which she proceeded to rip out. As he slumped to the floor bleeding profusely from the wound she had inflicted he drew out a blood stained katana that had ripped through her stomach.  
  
InuYasha saw Kagome move as fast as the wind only to see something glinting with blood spear out her back. He saw the mass of flesh she flung back, then noticed that his throat almost completely missing as he slid off his chair, the smirk ever imprinted on his face in death.  
  
The katana slithered out of Kagome's mid-section as he slid to the floor still grasping it tightly in his dead hands. Kagome turned around to see that InuYasha was taking care not to cut Akiko and Kaori while he unbound them with his claws and removed the paste smeared across Kaori's chest, she smiled at him as she stood beside him. "We didn't make it precisely on time to undo what went wrong.. but.. at least we got rid of the man that would've..." She couldn't finish off her sentence. Taking a deep breath, she moved forward to heave Kaori over her shoulder. She gestured for InuYasha to take Akiko and then follow her.  
  
'My sense of smell came back full force, as the man before me died. His face was forever contorted in the smugness of assumed victory. It's really awful that people like that really existed. InuYasha already took care of Akiko and Kaori for me.. He is really an endearing boy... Now to get them back to the village. If this wound in my stomach would just stop hurting so badly it wouldn't be so hard.' Shouldering Kaori and watching as InuYasha did the same with Akiko she moved out the door. It wasn't too long before they were back to the village after using their demon speed to make it back.  
  
"Where do you want us to put them?" Kagome asked as she went to the village head. The old one had died in the fray with the demons. Looking around Kagome saw that a lot of villagers had died and that the population of the village was cut down by half now. 'That's pretty good considering we were all up against at least twenty or thirty demons all attacking at once.'  
  
In the three huts that had withstood the attack, one of them had two tables laid out with blankets on top of them to put Akiko and Kaori on. Kagome and InuYasha laid them out. Kagome stared at them a moment or two before she moved out the door. The villagers were coming in to look at their village heads when they were able bodied enough to take over for the residing one.  
  
Kagome started digging with her hands in the dirt just outside the village. InuYasha dragged the bodies over toward her and they both laid them in the holes. They piled the dirt on and placed stones over top of their burial place. After their job was complete, InuYasha was surprised to see Kagome sink to her knees and start sobbing. Her shirt was soaked with a mixture of sweat, her blood, and the dirt she had used to bury the dead. He was still surprised that her wounds were healing like they were but he wasn't going to complain if they were helping her out as much as they seemed to be.  
  
Moving over to her, he was confused as to what he should do. Placing his hand awkwardly on her shoulder seemed to do more harm than good as she gripped him around the waist only to sob harder. He heard her blubbering about something she had failed... but she had tried so hard and it wasn't fair. He couldn't make much else out of the mess she had made herself. "Kagome... calm down.. It's not the end of the world... Akiko and Kaori are going to live at least." 'Why do I always have to say the wrong things??' He fretted when her tears started anew.  
  
"I'm really sorry InuYasha.." She murmured as her tears subsided and she had let him go to lie amid the dirt and graves. "I'm just so upset that no matter that I tried really hard to get to them.. I failed anyway." Her breathing hitched but her tears didn't start up again, a fact of which he was highly grateful. She sat up and looked around her. "So many people died InuYasha.. it.. its so terrible.. but.. I really don't feel anything for them because I didn't know them personally.. but I still feel terrible because I was there.. and I couldn't stop them from dying."  
  
"Kagome.. What were you really going to do? Even if you had been able to visit them all.. What could you really have done to stop them all from dying?" He said quietly as he stared at the graves as well. "Besides you are in no state to be thinking so morbidly. After all.. you did manage to save two lives.. and a few others I would imagine.. you had distracted quite a few demons and were handling them rather well before I came along and distracted you.. Isn't that good that you saved some? Instead of the opposite, with having not helped any of the people, at all? Then how much more useless would you feel?"  
  
She didn't want to tell him how much better she felt after he said what he did to her because she felt bad now for crying over something like that. But she didn't feel bad for crying for Akiko and Kaori. If her hunch was right.. they were already blood related and Akiko could heal and Kaori could read minds.. She was so not someone they should've relied on. Sighing she looked at Little InuYasha. "Let's go to sleep.. I have stuff I need to do with you tomorrow." She said quietly.  
  
"Well lets see if there isn't anywhere else to sleep.. Personally the graves would be more of an eye-opener than a good sleeping place." He commented as he took her arm. Kagome gathered him up and walked sedately to the end of the ruined village, which wasn't very far anymore.. Leaping up into the trees, she settled herself up against a thick, high branch and curled InuYasha up in her lap. His body was big enough to be slightly awkward in her arms but not uncomfortable. She wanted to cry again knowing this was her last night with him.. but she didn't want to leave him remembering her acting so terribly.  
  
The morning dawned crisp and clear. Kagome saw that InuYasha still wasn't awake so she carried him with her as she hopped down and went into the hut where they had left Akiko and Kaori. They looked much better.. but they would never be the same happy people they used to be. She kissed Akiko's forehead, then she did the same to Kaori. Laying InuYasha down on the floor, she cut a lock of her hair and left it at the foot of Kaori's table to show them that she hadn't left without saying good-bye.  
  
Picking the hanyou up, she left. Jumping up into the trees, she proceeded back to where she needed to be. Shame, driving her to go faster than she would normally be able to go. Shame at not being able to protect Kaori and Akiko the way she was supposed to, shame at not being able to do more even with her being demon, shame, shame, shame. Grateful that it didn't rain through the entire time she was flying through the air, because she didn't feel like stopping. As long as she kept going, kept moving her thoughts, the disgrace would not catch up to her. She would do anything to not have to stop whether she knew it or no.  
  
She made to pause on a branch and change her direction, when she found she was moving at a speed that surprised her. When she was a quarter of the way back "home", InuYasha woke up and clambered onto her back. With him in a more comfortable position, she was able to move much faster. She reached the village before sundown. Looking at the sky, she judged she had about an hour.  
  
"Kagome.. We're almost back to the cave.." InuYasha marveled. "It took us a few days to get to the other one.. and now we're almost home." He said 'home' breathlessly like he was really looking forward to it.. She felt so bad at having to make sure he never remembered that place until he was ready to.  
  
Walking into the midst of the village that was to be the home of Kikyou and Kaeda in later years.. She called out in a firm voice. "I have a strong need for a priestess."  
  
A woman that looked similar to Kikyou came out of one of the huts that had been completed already. "Yes?" She said. The woman was obviously pregnant. For some reason this made Kagome smile as she looked on the lady.  
  
"InuYasha would you mind to go over there please?" Kagome asked. He looked confusedly at her but nodded and left. When she was certain he was far enough away, she gave her attention back to the lady. "I need something to be done to him so that he will not remember me until a little while after I turn hanyou.. or whatever I am." Her tail swished on cue behind her.  
  
"Well.. What exactly do you want for him? I could give him something to drink.. or I could do an incantation?" The pregnant woman asked.  
  
"I would prefer an incantation.. it would be best I imagine.. and I'd think you'd have more control over everything if that was the way you used." Kagome said quietly as she looked over at him.  
  
"Bring him here.. and take him into the hut I came out of. I'll do it in there and you'll have nothing to worry about." Kagome nodded and went to where she had made InuYasha go.  
  
"Hey.. are we ready to go back yet?" InuYasha queried when she came up to him.  
  
"No not yet.. I have something I want you to do first.." Kagome said. Picking him up she carried him to the hut even though he protested and wanted to be let down. She set him on the floor of the hut. "I will be back." She said to him.. "You just wait for me." She smiled then. And with a silent nod to the lady she knew that the woman understood she had to go.  
  
(((  
  
InuYasha watched as Kagome's eyes fluttered open. "Where are Akiko and Kaori?" She asked quickly, her eyes searching his. 


	10. Anger is a Condition in Which the Tongue...

Chapter 10: Anger is a condition in which the tongue works faster than the mind.  
  
InuYasha: Damn woman! Took you blasted long enough to get on with the story! What in the hell do you think you're doing lazing off and drawing? Write! Write! Write!  
  
Danie: *throws hands in air* what do you think I'm doing baka? Geez... and besides I was doing it as a favor for a friend-  
  
InuYasha: Friend? What is this 'friend'? Me! I am the Friend! No one else therefore you write about ME!!  
  
Kagome: Osuwari!  
  
InuYasha: *thumps in the ground*  
  
Danie: Hey Miroku? Sango?  
  
Sango: Houshi-sama took off a while ago. Maybe you should see to him?  
  
Danie: Sure thing... OH Disclaimer!! I do not own anyone, save Kaori and Akiko... and Tanrakuteki but he's dead now so what does it matter? ^.^;;  
  
Naraku's castle stood on a high hilltop. Kikyou had been standing outside the building's guard so as to not be detected but she knew that Naraku could feel her presence. It mattered not to her if InuYasha failed or if he succeeded, so long as he died. Naraku would go down with him, she knew that much but didn't want to know beyond that. He would come to her himself she was sure of that and just awaited him to see the fit time to emerge from his dank, dark home. It would be satisfying to see his reaction and his retaliation at hearing the news of Kagome's downfall. Now that she was a demon it would most likely throw a kink in his well-laid plans he had been formulating for months on end.  
  
Getting the living wench out of the way would help her along in talking InuYasha into the grave with her. The idea that maybe he loved her, and wanted to keep her, never crossed her mind, nor would it ever.  
  
The feeling that something malevolent was watching her from behind alerted her to the presence of Naraku. Turning to see the familiar baboon- cloaked demon, "Hello, Onigumo." She said pleasantly enough, with a smirk of triumph on her face.  
  
(  
  
InuYasha watched as Kagome cried in Kaori's chest about how sorry she was that she had failed. Akiko and Kaori exchanged looks of sympathy, tipping him off that they had known she would fail before they had even set her off on the mission. And there she was just crying her little heart out over it, oblivious to the real purpose that she had been used for. That he had been used for, for that matter. His temper boiled at the idea of him being a convenient side benefit to Kaori and Akiko's own purposes and he wanted to hit something, namely them.  
  
Kagome hadn't figured out these facts yet and he didn't feel like informing her. His feelings were in a mess ever since he had met Kaori and Akiko. They messed with his head and refused to leave him alone. Now that Kagome's little escapade for them was over he was going to fix this to where they would never come back again as they had no right to be with his group.  
  
It was being almost forced to look at her, while she hiccupped, that made his temper boil over the way it did. His feet were deceptively quiet on the bed of leaves as he stood before the little sob group. He let loose a snarl fit to scare a battle worn demon. Kagome jumped but Akiko and Kaori sat there looking at him coolly.  
  
"Why don't you guys just cut the shit and tell her that this was all set up the entire time? That she did all she was expected to and more, that way she can stop her sniveling and we can get back to important things." His voice was harsh and he felt that if he had been on the receiving end he would've winced to hear it but he wasn't and therefore he did not regret what he said.  
  
Kagome's eyes hardened but the tears didn't stop on their way down her face. "What do you mean I did all that I was intended to do?"  
  
Kaori waited for Kagome to face her with the question instead of posing it toward the hanyou but InuYasha answered for her in any case. "They had intended you to go to the past to save their lives only. They fed you that bull shit about them wanting you to save them from being cursed, because they knew that was the story you had been told. If you hadn't told them in the past what story it was you were being fed yourself here in what I term the 'present' they wouldn't have fed it to you like that at all." He took in a great breath before he carried on with his rant. "And it caused them to mess in my life as well as yours and I realize that part of it is your fault but I put the majority of it at their feet. But I condemn all equally." He crossed his arms over his chest and looked down his nose at them as he spoke. "During that entire time all they could do was fiddle in Miroku and Sango's life and scare the daylights out of everyone with that bull that Akiko pulled on showing Sango what had happened."  
  
Kaori pushed Kagome off her lap gently but firmly. "Well InuYasha if that is all you have to reveal and we have no further use here..." She trailed off and gave her hand to Akiko to help him to his feet. "Kagome... if I could have a word?" Akiko asked gently as he got up.  
  
Kagome, ragged by all the news she had to take in and the emotional stress she had been under since figuring that she had lost the battle she was supposed to have won, nodded soundlessly and followed him. InuYasha watched with his rage threatening to burst from his chest at any second and blow him to pieces along with every other moron in the vicinity.  
  
(  
  
InuYasha stood above her looking down. Her hair had not gone back to any semblance of her human coloring ever since she had gotten back. He remembered everything that she had done to him and he resented her. He knew she had to leave him but to tamper with his memories like that? The fact that she had let that woman tamper with them so he would 'fall in love' with Kikyou. It was too much to handle.  
  
He could feel that Miroku and Sango were finally coming back from their little escapade into the woods. He figured they had been making up as their scent was all over each other. He figured it was a blessing he couldn't smell their arousal all over each other as well.  
  
Bending over, he picked Kagome up only to have her eyes burst apart and stare at him with all the feelings that were raging in his chest. Fury being the boldest one in raising it's ugly head. He dropped her like a hot potato, as he felt his emotions drain out of him and leave him tired and calm.  
  
InuYasha sank to his knees before her while she panted and lay on the ground. Emotions chased themselves across her features: anger, fear, rage, despair, and a dying love. Dying.  
  
Miroku heard Inu Yasha's cry of anguish. He looked toward Sango to see if he had imagined it but her face was just as worried as he felt. They took off like a bullet through the rest of the woods until they saw Kagome lying on her back stock still and pale seemingly not breathing and feared the worst. "Kagome??" Sango fairly shrieked.  
  
Pale and foggy brained Kagome sat upright and started laughing. Tears coursed their way down her cheeks as she shook with the force of the gales of her laughter. InuYasha just stared at her like she was inhabited with some demon or had grown another head. Miroku watched him glance from him to Sango as if he expected them to see the same thing he was. "Kagome-sama?" Miroku hesitated beside her, and then put his hand on her shoulder.  
  
She wanted to tell them to stop touching her. Every time one of them touched her she could feel the emotions raging inside them. She would never have accounted so much RAGE being inside InuYasha and whom it was directed at. He hated it that she had cried and cried. So when she sat up and faced him, laughter bubbled out of her throat instead. Miroku was filled with nothing more than worry for her and love for Sango, much easier than she would've ever predicted from Miroku. Sango however didn't touch her and she liked that.  
  
As soon as everyone's hands were off of her she crawled away from them as fast as her arms and legs could manage. Her chest heaved with the effort it took to clear out her body of everyone else's feelings and find her own. "Where did Akiko go?" She asked hoarsely. InuYasha looked up and some emotion kindled in his eyes before guttering out and dying. His hand rose and he pointed towards the trees behind her. Standing up, he brushed off his pants and left.  
  
He felt empty. His heart had no emotions. His body felt like a husk of his former self. Now that none of his emotions were in his way he remembered his purpose for being out here in the first place, before Akiko and Kaori had stopped him from his mission. He was out here to help Kagome become human again.  
  
Letting the air out of his lungs, he turned only to see that Miroku was following him with a dazed kind of dream-walker look to him. "InuYasha?" He asked, his voice sounding as if it came from a million miles away. And maybe it did, his mind looked like it had vacated his skull for the time being.  
  
Sango hadn't touched Kagome and therefore retained her feelings. "Kagome... what is it you've done to them?"  
  
Kagome sighed as she lay on her side. Her breathing regulated and she eyed Sango. "Don't touch me... I think I finally figured out what I can do. And I don't necessarily like it." Rolling onto her stomach, she shoved up with her hands and got to her feet.  
  
Sango frowned at her. "Kagome what could you mean?"  
  
"I mean... I dunno, but I think you don't want to know." Kagome closed her eyes when she heard some harsh sound hit her ears. Her body shook in time with the sounds confusing her until she realized she was laughing hoarsely.  
  
"Kagome... from what I've seen of what you do... or rather heard of what you have done, why this too? Why do you have this put on you too? Kagome..." Sango cut off when Kagome turned, a harsh look in her eyes.  
  
"I don't know, Sango. Tell me, why do I get singled out for this stuff? Why does it happen to me? I don't know, all right? If I knew wouldn't I be doing something to prevent it? I didn't want to know InuYasha resents me? I didn't want to know how much Miroku cares for you nor what you were doing back there in the woods! I didn't, all right? No matter if you believe me or not I just don't give a bloody damn I've been through too much to give a shit about what's changing now." Clutching her sides again she burst out in spasms of laughter.  
  
"InuYasha used to love me! When he thought I was Kikyou! Now he doesn't and he was infatuated with me lately! Get that one?" She fell over, tears streaming down her face as she laughed on and on. "Miroku loves you but he sets the need of having spawn higher than your love, hence why your relationship hasn't progressed till now. He thinks he's going to get some out of you! And on top of that-" She cut off suddenly assaulted by a coughing fit. Her face paled with ever cough. Sango looked at her friend and bent to touch her before she remembered her words. "S-sango?" Kagome's voice came out small and frail. "Sango... what is going on?"  
  
Sango felt her chest contract in pain for her friend. "Kagome... I think that we need to get you fixed and fast... I don't think you can last much longer with this curse." She had never felt the need to cry over anyone or anything ever since she had lost her brother to Naraku... Miroku had promised to help her retrieve him. But her hopes had been dashed too many times for her feelings on the subject to be any more than words. Although, for some reason, just watching Kagome struggle to keep her composure with what had just been revealed in her made her want to weep for her friend. "Kagome can you stand?"  
  
"Yes I think I can Sango, thank you." Kagome replied. "Have InuYasha and Miroku already gotten farther ahead?" Her face was flushed red as she remembered the flow of words that had left her lips before she could alter their flow.  
  
"Yes, they went on a ways. But if we go now we can catch up to them in a few minutes." Sango said soothingly.  
  
Kagome nodded and rose to her feet, swaying slightly. "Let's go then." She smiled faintly to trail InuYasha and Miroku. Their footsteps got sturdier as their feelings came back to them.  
  
Sango watched her friend's face light up as she trailed the men in front of her. "Kagome... Listen, if its any consolation whatsoever I'm really sorry about all of this. If I would've kept watch better..."  
  
"You couldn't have." Kagome said looking her in the eye. "You were both worn out with worry and would've fallen asleep at the same time if not that night then another night. I was determined to go and show that I was not some child to be taken care of. I had no intention of letting you guys do as you pleased with me just because it suited your purposes. Looking back on it now, it seems so far away and childish... you think?"  
  
Sango thought about it and agreed. It really did seem like such a long long time since the events that altered and almost literally flipped Kagome's life upside down. Looking at Kagome, she smiled and noticed Kagome's fangs when she grinned back. Things really had changed and yet they had not. Sango still felt a strong bond with Kagome coming from out of all the battles they had faced head on together, if not all the time then most of it. Added to the battles, was the emotional support Kagome offered every time she needed it. It almost sickened her to think of how little she had been there for Kagome when she needed it. She could count on her fingers how many times she had actually helped Kagome and figured it would take a lifetime to show her all the gratitude she felt to Kagome for all the things she had done for her.  
  
Kagome wanted so much not to have ran away, to have listened to InuYasha when he told her not to go, listened to Miroku or Sango when they asked her to talk. But pride is a force to be reckoned with and she obviously didn't have the steel to tell it no and do what she needed to, not what she wanted to. She figured her monthly was around the corner with her being so emotional of late, then was struck with the thought of 'Do demons have monthlies?'  
  
"Sango, you're a demon hunter... that means you know a goodly amount about the demons you slay correct?"  
  
Sango nodded wondering where she was going with this.  
  
"Do demons have monthlies?"  
  
"Monthlies?" Sango asked puzzled.  
  
"Uhm... rag time?" Sango shook her head in confusion. "Hmm. Ah, the time of the month when girls regularly bleed on themselves?"  
  
Sango's face burned a brilliant shade of crimson as she tried not to choke while she coughed in shock. "Ah, Kagome I don't rightly know."  
  
"Oh, well then I suppose if it comes then I'm screwed for the time being then huh?" Kagome smiled brilliantly at her.  
  
The boys were before them. InuYasha standing with his arms crossed over his chest in whine position #2 translating: I am waiting on you even though you're slowing me down and I would like you to feel guilty for it. Miroku on the other hand was swatting down apples out of a tree with his staff. Three of them were on the ground at his feet, discarded because of their obvious bad shape. Shippo sat on the ground munching on the apples that weren't nasty or gross. His eyes darted back and forth from Kagome to the food in his hand. He hadn't touched Kagome since InuYasha had threatened his life if he even thought about bothering her while she sobbed all over Kaori. He was close to saying that she hadn't even taken notice of him as he followed InuYasha after he touched Kagome and went a bit dazed away from her. He hadn't touched her after InuYasha told him no and he kept from touching her because now the honest truth was: She scared him to death.  
  
He stifled the urge to flinch when her eyes lit on him. "Shippo!" She smiled and moved toward him. Looking at her he couldn't see how InuYasha had come out so odd. It must've been his fault. His little feet padded on the ground as he raced over toward her, muscles bunched for the leap and the contact with her... he would never forget. Memories assailed him. His father getting chased down by the Thunder Brothers, his mother dying at the hands of humans to feed their families, Kagome being taken captive by the Thunder Brothers, Kagome attacking demon after demon after demon in a never ending cycle and being attacked back, Kagome, Kagome, Kagome... Suddenly the ground was coming at him swiftly, he felt the impact but was strangely empty. Looking down at his feet, Kagome had collapsed on the floor shuddering. When she looked up at him her eyes were wild and full of fear. "My god, Shippo."  
  
"Kagome, what did you do to him?" Sango fairly squealed in horror.  
  
Coming onto her hands and knees, Kagome was wracked with a terrible coughing fit that didn't stop until blood came up and out onto the ground. "I think I'm fine... Shippo should be okay in a few minutes." Laying her forehead on the ground she pounded her fist beside her head. "Why? Why does it have to be me?" She felt the onslaught of tears and held them back fiercely.  
  
InuYasha looked down at her. "Get up. We don't have time to waste on you feeling sorry for yourself." His face was set in harsh lines, as she looked up at him to confirm that she had actually heard him utter those terribly cruel words. Nodding silently, she pulled to her feet and asked Sango to pick up Shippo for her. Miroku watched the exchange with shock writ in every feature of his body. 'How could he just tell her that? Not even a week ago he wouldn't let us see her for fear that we would make her feel uncomfortable. Now he's getting close to cussing her out for something that she can't help?'  
  
'How could she? Just what went through her mind that she could do this to me?' He had figured out her heart's desire and he hated it. He couldn't fathom why in the world she would want to be both at once acceptable and unfit for him as well. She had wanted to know his life story and feelings, which he knew she had asked him of his past before just wanting to form a bond with him but he hadn't known that she had wanted to talk with him about it so badly as to make it one of the top things in her life to do. She had also wanted to make him feel less of an outsider in the place he had forged for himself being neither demon nor human but a mix of both. He had thought the world revolved around him with all these new little things he had discovered of himself. That most everything happened to him, but now Kagome took that from him. When she got mad thinking that he was in trouble she could morph into a full fledged demon no strings attached to her, whereas with himself he would morph into a full demon only to have his mind almost literally blown to dust in the want and lust of blood shed. Now she could delve into anyone's mind, human and demon alike, and rip out the most coveted secrets, past experiences, thoughts, wants and needs. It fairly pissed him off that he could have no secrets with her now. She knew all of what had transpired betwixt him and Kikyou; she knew what in all he had thought of her time and again.  
  
He knew what in all had transpired in his life and now he felt as if he knew even less. He had figured he had Kagome pegged in a neat little box as to what in all she needed and wanted and now this came at him. Enough was enough, he couldn't deal with it and it was driving him nuts. He could still see Shippo in his mind's eye, his mouth opened in a silent scream, eyes twitching with contained panic. Kagome's face had stayed impassive through the whole experience, staring off into some distant land where only she and Shippo existed, a place of horror.  
  
He hadn't wanted to share with her the pain of having his flesh pierced by the arrow point, hers or Kikyou's it mattered not they were both one and the same now. Both her and Kikyou had betrayed him one way or another. Kikyou taking the shards to Naraku and Kagome raping his mind of all his closely held fears and concerns they were similar in ways they would never figure for themselves. And because they were both so similar he loved them and hated them in the same turn.  
  
InuYasha watched nonchalantly as Shippo came out of his reverie and looked at Kagome from the safety of Sango's arms. InuYasha envied the little kitsune that he could fear Kagome and with reason whereas InuYasha couldn't do that.  
  
Miroku watched Inu Yasha's face grow sterner as he went deeper and deeper into his own thoughts. 'If he doesn't come out of himself he's going to grow to hate her and god knows who or what else would be in the path of his fury.' Kagome walked sullenly beside Sango, enduring the fearful looks shot at her by the kitsune and the questioning ones by Sango. Inu Yasha failed to look at her at all, so he figured it mattered not at all to him. He had a niggling feeling in the back of his head that Kagome was going to do something stupid should this go on any longer, but he felt that there was not overmuch he could do about it but be ready for it when it happened.  
  
Tired and worn, the gang marched steadily towards where Inu Yasha led them. It was only when Kagome had spoken up that she was worn and could make it no further that Inu Yasha finally stopped ready to turn in for the night. Kagome sat near a tree stroking her tail and picking out the dead leaves that had caught in it as she had drug it behind her with little thought of anything more than the sorrow she was gripped by from every one of the group's past experiences save Sango. She was grateful that she didn't have to foot some of the burden of losing all of her family and then having to find that her brother was alive just under the control of Naraku.  
  
Her soul ached in torment from all the sadness and sorrow she had felt and experienced through everyone. The duties that had been dumped on Miroku that strained him so badly ever since his father was swallowed up by the void in his hand. The pain at feeling Kikyou pierce his heart with an arrow that shattered the love they had experienced. The arrow that had pierced his heart let loose by her hand and felt by him, flesh and soul. The pain at finding that Kikyou was still alive and that he was to work with someone who looked and acted like Kikyou at every turn and crossroad. Then there was Shippo. Feeling bereft and alone, fearful at every battle that everyone save him was engaged in, his family lost to him at the cruel hands of humans or demons, either were both terrible in the same way.  
  
There was nothing that anyone could say or do to alleviate these burdens and she now knew first hand what it was to have them happen to her. She could now say, and mean, "I know what you mean." It was horrible and no matter the pain she was under she never regretted the desires her heart had brought upon her. But then again what was the use of regretting what was already done and past? Ever since she had started to get to 'know' Kikyou her views on life had changed a bit and they didn't seem to be for the more perky side of life, for what could be found on an upside when you were in love with someone who was infatuated with a walking corpse and you had to fight for your life daily against demons that were so many times stronger than you are... it kindly dwindles the optimistic attitude.  
  
Hearing the soft snores of her companions trusting her to keep to them now in her 'time of need', she stood and walked away from them. No intention of ever coming back entered her mind. She was grateful to Inu Yasha for all his insight on tracking and keeping from being tracked that she learned from his memories as she made her way gracefully and silent as a cat away from the fire and the safety of her group.  
  
Inu Yasha awoke in the morning unsurprised at her absence. Sango refused to leave him alone about getting her. "Listen. I know where she's going because she knows how to cure herself now. She has one of two options: going through with the curse to where it will end with her or curing herself of it and being herself again. I figure she'd choose the latter as opposed to the former all right? So if you follow me we'll get there and we might even meet up with her. But I know even if she chooses the former she'll still go there to see if she can put herself through it."  
  
"Since when did you get so knowledgeable about Kagome, shit for brains?" Inu Yasha had figured he would be here sooner or later. Although he had figured that it would be later rather than now, or rather he wished it had been later instead of now.  
  
"Since I made her mine." Inu Yasha retorted smug to see the wolf's face drop in shock.  
  
"You wouldn't dare!" He accused his voice more of a bark than anything else.  
  
"Oh I did. I claimed her and you could check yourself... If you knew how to find her that is." For once he actually wanted Kagome to see a battle between himself and the wolf. But if she were there she would make them stop one way or the other. If he took care of the wolf now there would be no problems later. However, if he were to kill the wolf he would have to provide for Kagome for the rest of her life as there was no where that she could go if he would want to leave her. He cursed himself when he didn't see any major difference between caring for Kagome for the rest of his life and caring for Kikyou.  
  
Kouga dug his heels into the ground preparing to attack Inu Yasha. Inu Yasha gave him one cursory glance then turned his back on him and walked away leaving the wolf in confusion. Kouga looked from Miroku to Sango to Shippo to see if any of them would have any idea as to why Inu Yasha had just backed down from a fight for Kagome's virtue and claim. This had never happened before and it pissed him off that Inu Yasha had just looked at him as if he weren't worth his time.  
  
Speeding up to where the half-breed was, Kouga stopped in front of Inu Yasha and slapped him across the face. Inu Yasha's eyes turned toward him and regarded him without any real emotion. Suddenly all the air flew out of Kouga's lungs as claws buried themselves in his stomach.  
  
"What do you want wolf?" Inu Yasha's impassive voice flowed over top of his head like ice water. "You're wasting my time and I have plenty of other important matters to deal with."  
  
Kouga marveled at the fact that Inu Yasha's voice never altered in tone. It was as if he were a walking dream known only to himself and seen to others. "Kagome."  
  
Inu Yasha's eyes lit briefly with emotion then went flat again. "What about her?" His amber eyes turned on Kouga and for some reason Kouga felt that there was nothing going on behind the eyes, as with everything that was shown... there wasn't room left for his mind to operate. It seemed that as Inu Yasha looked at him, all the emotions that would've been raging in his body were conveyed to his and he felt all the energy he had drain out of his body.  
  
When Inu Yasha's gaze left him, he felt it all rush back as he gasped for air, feeling as if he had just been trapped underwater for an overlong period of time. Miroku hunkered down by his side. "Kouga it would be best if you didn't meddle in the affairs of Kagome and Inu Yasha around this time."  
  
"Affairs? You're kidding me right? Kagome wouldn't sleep with more than one man and that man has to be me..." His eyes searched the monk's face hoping that he would get more information than the measly bit he had just been tossed.  
  
"If you were smart, Kouga, you would leave now. Inu Yasha isn't sure about what he is about no matter what he says and he feels betrayed by Kagome now that he knows somewhat of what she's done to him." Miroku explained before his face met the ground.  
  
"You have no right to share any information about Kagome or myself to this flea-bitten demon wannabe." His upper lip curled away from his teeth exposing his fangs as a low growl emanated from his chest.  
  
Miroku gave him the finger when he got back onto his feet. Kouga watched the strained tension between the two and figured that Kagome had done something major. "Where is she dog shit?"  
  
"Don't talk to me." Inu Yasha growled warningly, his temper rising with ever passing second.  
  
Kouga advanced on him. "Where-" Then everything went black. 


	11. Your Heart Understands What Your Head Ca...

A Curse Can Be A Miracle Ch. 11: Your heart understands what your head cannot yet conceive.  
  
Danie: Well... taps fingers Kouga is a moron.. I do believe everyone saw that correct?  
  
Inu Yasha: grins Yep! I saw it.. Hey you saw it too right, Kagome? turns ... Kagome?  
  
Miroku: Uh... Inu Yasha you kindly drove her away last chapter remember?  
  
Kouga: Hey!! I'm not a moron!  
  
Inu Yasha: Yes, you are.  
  
Danie: tapes over Kouga and Inu Yasha's mouth with duct tape there... Now they'll shut up so I can write some more for you avid fans of Inu Yasha. Oh and, no, I do not own Inu Yasha and with his current little attitude... I don't want to... added to that I have a boyfriend now so... I can't very well have both, can I? LOL (I wish)  
  
"Inu Yasha! You didn't-"Sango said as she looked at the unconscious wolf lying on the cold ground.  
  
"Yes, I did. Now shut up, we're leaving." He growled irritably, as he turned his gaze on the monk, fox child, and demon hunter. "No, we are not taking him with us, and, no, we are not going to help him in any way whatsoever." His cold eyes lit on them again and they shuffled behind him, to keep his anger from burning any brighter than it already was.  
  
'He loves her; I just know it. Why doesn't he just do something about her leaving us all behind? He may not realize how much this is bothering him, as he is a moron... but... I just can't help but see it.' Sango thought to herself. 'I mean he told Kouga that he had claimed Kagome, when any one of us knows that he hadn't.' She frowned as she held Shippo in her arms. The little kitsune tugged on her hair that hung down her shoulders. "Sango... I-I want Kagome." His lower lip trembled as he looked up at her sadly.  
  
"Yes, Shippo we all want Kagome, except Inu Yasha." She said quietly to the kitsune. He buried his face in her chest.  
  
"Why does he have to be such a moron?" Shippo said under his breath. "Hey Sango, do you know what his problem is?" He asked gaining a bit of his bounce back and his childish curiosity for everything, living or inanimate.  
  
"Inu Yasha doesn't seem to know how to handle his feelings. Its rather weak of him, but he just can't think about Kagome because that hurts him too much." She frowned as she thought on her words. "And I think Kagome is dealing with her new problem the only way she knows how."  
  
"Sango... do... do you think that Kagome's going to come back to us?" He looked so desolate and alone that she couldn't do anything but nod to him, no matter that she didn't think that it would happen for a long, long time yet, if it did that is.  
  
Kagome sat on the edge of a sheer drop off. "How did I get here?" She thought to herself. Burying her face in her hands, she forced back the tears that had fought to impede her vision ever since Inu Yasha had shown her that he despised her. Stress ate at her non-stop; worry was her frequent companion in these hours that she was on her own.  
  
"God, Inu Yasha, what do I do??" She cried aloud, even though she knew it was futile to call out to him of all people, she couldn't help herself.  
  
Every worry that had ever entered her head and every concern that she had delved from her friends' head whirled around her in a constant stream. Inu Yasha resented her. It was an underlying fact that kept coming around and around to haunt her again and again in a never-ending circle.  
  
Forcefully hardening her heart, she stood up and looked at the murky forest ahead of her. Fear nagged at her, tugging her down, asking her to lay down and give up; to just let the shadows envelope her and die here, now.  
  
One step, two. With each movement of her feet the uncertainty in her heart and the pain in her soul grew into disproportional sizes waging wars inside her until she could barely see straight. Something cold started slithering inside her stomach until she felt sick. 'Something... isn't setting right,' she thought to herself as she sank back down to her knees, clutching her stomach and rocking, hoping to get rid of the nasty feeling.  
  
"What is such a young child doing in here?" Voices whispered above her head. "Maybe she's here to be eaten? Or mayhap she's here to eat?" It startled her to hear such a reedy thin voice talk about her rather than to her in such an uninhabited land and on top of that to be met with jovial laughter. The thing in her stomach seemed to throb with each syllable uttered by the voice.  
  
"Or maybe she's lost and needs... guidance?" Came a harsh intone. She was half tempted to shake her head in negation when the coil seemed to delve into her organs instead of contenting itself outside. Tears formed at the corners of her eyes at the pain it brought on.  
  
"Hello?" Kagome said, her voice sounding drugged from the pain that was worming its way through her systems.  
  
"Oh how cute, she can talk!" One of them exclaimed, this time it sounded feminine. She had the distinct impression that something was seriously wrong with her hearing voices and not seeing bodies to go along with them. 'Maybe I'm going crazy.' She let out a hollow laugh. 'Wouldn't that just beat all? Going crazy with super-human strength... Maybe Inu Yasha will have to kill me some day.'  
  
Whispers flew as she stayed in the fetal position in the grass under the trees. Kagome felt, more than heard, something devious being schemed above her head. She had no clue what it was, and was quite certain she should leave it alone. But curiosity won out anyway.  
  
Looking up into the trees overhead, she concentrated hard to see if she couldn't figure out what it was above her. "What's it doing?" Came one of the voices. Standing, Kagome turned so as to get a better look, when she realized she didn't have the strength to do that and tackle the alien form inside her. She fell back unconscious as she slid down the ravine.  
  
InuYasha felt something twinge in his heart. Of a sudden it felt like he was being crushed both from the inside and on the out. "Kagome-"He gasped out, before his mind went blank.  
  
Shippo watched, as Inu Yasha seemed to get crippled in mid-stride. He felt fear ripple through Sango, himself and Miroku. Nothing aside from a catastrophe would make Inu Yasha crumple up in the middle of a tantrum. Sango gasped as she viewed Inu Yasha's body move as if it were being jerked by some hand far above with invisible strings hanging down to his body. His feet weren't even touching the floor for God's sake! His eyes were blank and staring toward some unseen goal that only he knew. His fangs were elongating and his cheeks were flushing with a fury that would rival a god's.  
  
The entire group took a precautionary step back, as he let out a roar fit to kill. "Oh God! Is he transforming due to his anger?" Miroku gasped, not heard due to the horrid sound issuing from Inu Yasha's throat.  
  
"Endless Rain falls on my head..." Kagome sang to herself softly, wondering if maybe the creature like thing inside her was just her imagination before she passed out from exhaustion. "Let me forget... all of the hate... all of the sadness..." She winced at each of her gasps for air between words.  
  
A few of her ribs were broken and she could see the white of her bones through her left side. Her face felt like it had been redone by a steamroller and then smothered in cement. 'Life... God... mine is going to be over so soon... and I barely got to live it.' She gave a short bark of a laugh, and felt tears gather at the corners of her eyes at the pain of it all. "Give it all up...", a masculine voice said in her ear. She shivered as she heard him and let her eyes rest for a time...  
  
Sesshomaru looked at the measly human before him. The child had been with him for the longest time. Not so long as Jaken, the annoying and seemingly necessary toad demon, but then she was human and he didn't know that she could live long enough to out do the years the toady had spent by his side. It was a tempting thought to think of how long she had to live with him. Thinking of what would happen if he took the sword to the demons when they came for her in old age. How would she fare then? Would it be absolute torture? Would it make her suffer? He felt utterly rotten and sadistically happy at the same time with these thoughts.  
  
She bent down at his feet to lay flowers over his shoes, once again interrupting his thoughts as she had made a habit of doing. If she laid many more he'd have a new pair of pants made of nothing but nosegays.  
  
Her black hair glistened like a raven's wing as it moved lightly over her back. One of the servants must have given her a bath recently but not before she went outside to ruin most of their hard work. He knew what it was like to have Rin take a bath. If anything the young chit thought that was the utmost torture. Weren't little girls supposed to love being clean and dressed prettily? Her dress had streaks of mud where her knees must have dug into the dirt to help her keep balance while she grabbed the flowers. A testament to disprove the stereotypical ideas about girls, he thought to himself.  
  
Her face was once again shown to him and her perpetual smile was there as always. One of her tiny, dirt-covered hands went behind her back to dig in the waistband of her dress. Circling around his chair she climbed up the back and brought forth a beautiful yellow rose. The thorns had been removed and he spotted blood on her apron where she must have wiped away the evidence of her picking them off. Lifting his hair away from his ear she placed the delicate, yet harsh flower there before jumping off.  
  
Sesshomaru snagged her hand as she was bringing it back down to rest at her side. "Rin, how did you cut your hand so?" He turned her palm up to the light exposing the wounds the thorns had inflicted. Scabs were already starting to form where she had bled a considerable amount for just picking something that would die within a few hours' time. It frustrated him that she would care to get something so harmful to herself just because it looked beautiful on him.  
  
His cool voice washed over the child. She tried to pull her hand away to keep it away from his eyes. "I- I uh... Rin didn't do anything, Sesshomaru-sama." She said defiantly. When his eyes met hers, she flinched but stayed still.  
  
"Then Rin, I would like you to tell me what this is." He said as he took his nail and ran it along one of the open cuts in her palm. He made sure he didn't hurt her what-so-ever. He would never do something to make her feel pain intentionally, and he would kill another before letting them try to harm her at all.  
  
She winced and cringed away. He frowned, he knew he hadn't damaged her hand in the least so that meant it was probably going to be infected if he didn't do something or, better yet, make her do something about it. "Go wash your hands and bring me some of the flowers I had you pick the other day... you know the ones. They're the ones that sting when you touch them." He said, his face perfectly serene even though he was thoroughly upset with Rin for having hurt herself. It would definitely teach her not to hurt herself any longer. It would burn but ultimately be better for her wounds that she should touch the flowers, as he wanted her to.  
  
Rin fairly ran out of the room, but frowned when she was on the other side of the door. He may have wanted her to pick the flowers... but she honestly detested the thought of touching them again. They hurt when her fingers weren't cut up or anything, and now he wanted her to grab them when her hands were so lacerated? Her tiny lips pursed as she steeled her back and her resolve, firmly marching towards the room where the nasty things were.  
  
One of the servants opened the door as she came in, giving Sesshomaru a scent of blood he hadn't smelled in a long time. "Inu Yasha," he half whispered to himself. "It appears your wench is coming this way, and badly hurt." He knew his moron half-brother wouldn't be able to hear him from this distance, but it didn't really matter so much.  
  
Rin toddled back into the great hall only to find Sesshomaru's chair empty and the opposite door swinging still from his abrupt departure. Dropping the stinging flowers she raced after him, determined not to be left behind.  
  
Kaori turned having felt that Kagome was hurt. "Akiko..." We have to do something you know..." She said. "Kagome is hurt very badly." She looked at the ground. "And I don't figure the hanyou is going to do something about it just yet, what with you doing what you did."  
  
Akiko frowned. "I know... I probably shouldn't have rushed her coming into the curse like that... it wouldn't have been such a shock if it had come gradually, but now she gets a chance to figure out what in all she always wanted to know... albeit she has to give up contact for a while until one of them decides to try to touch her again." He mused aloud. "I don't think she would want to touch them thinking that mayhap she would be bring up a lot of bad memories for them, but she just doesn't realize everything."  
  
"So what is it exactly that she does?" Kaori asked him. She paused for a moment, bending down into a creek, rinsing off her bare feet. Scooping water up with her hands, she splashed it upon her face and frowned back at him. "I mean she has all these powers and everything... I just don't know exactly what's supposed to happen to her, you know? And I feel that you guys still have your futures entwined together don't you?" Her voice got lower toward the end.  
  
"Don't even tell me you feel jealous?" He sighed. "No, once she has delved into the mind of one feeling or another in a person she can't access that again. But she won't ever forget it. It's as if that happened to her instead of them but not really. Her shape-shifting thing was only brought on because of her power. What she doesn't realize is that: Inu Yasha, due to a whole hell of a lot of stress, is developing his own talents." He smiled ruefully. "The demon may feel like he's on the back burner but the more each of them advance, the more they help the other. Miroku and Sango are going to come out with a few talents of their own soon as well." He turned to Kaori, his face instantly serious and forbidding. "But we aren't supposed to be around when they do."  
  
"How would you know? The future is the future. You're no psychic, no matter that you might like to think so." She said pointedly not liking being told what to do, let alone being spoken to like a child. "Let's go get Kagome and help her control herself," she pleaded.  
  
"What you don't realize is that someone is already there collecting her as we speak, thank you very much. Inu Yasha is on his way there but he's going to be too late to help her any." He scratched his head as he thought. "It will be a test of her own willpower as to whether she gets out of there in one piece or her mind disintegrates on it's own."  
  
"Well, gee, don't you just sound like a bright frickin' ray of sunshine?" Kaori said sarcastically. "You obviously know where she was taken, let's go help!" She demanded.  
  
"If you meddle you're going to screw up so much crap you know that?"  
  
"Like what? Inu Yasha NOT becoming a necrophiliac?" Kaori said sarcastically. "I don't see any harm coming from what in all we could do."  
  
"Just like you didn't think he'd be able to see through us right from the start? You know he suspected something... and I think you might be wrong here too... but if you seriously want to go I won't hinder you." He put his fears of all the horrid things that might happen behind him and smiled at her.  
  
"Oh please?" She asked excitedly. "I made such good friends with Miroku... I'd just like to hang around people for a little while longer." Her face lit up at the prospect of having some more time to spend with friends. It had been so long since they had been social.  
  
"Kaori-"he started in, but sighed as he looked in her eyes. "Please can we just look from the sidelines for a time... I honestly don't want to meddle any longer. We have our life and they have theirs."  
  
Kaori bit her lower lip and was tempted to whine and make a nag out of herself, but decided to wait and agree... for the time being.  
  
Kagome felt her ribs itching her. But something soft and silky was lying across her chest, which felt strangely bare for some odd reason.  
  
Sitting up, she tried to open her eyes only to realize they had been open the entire time. Panic ate at her, as she tried to see where she was at.  
  
It was black. Fear ate at her heart. Pulling the fur blanket tighter across her chest she winced when she realized that she still had a small open wound and that the fur was scraping across it and sending throbbing pain that flowed all through her body.  
  
Sesshomaru looked at the demon-child in front of him. His fingers rested coldly on his face. He drew comfort from that as he leaned into them. For the moment the entire focus of her mind and body was the wounds across her ribs. Essentially she was both blind, deaf and dumb ("dumb" is an old term for "mute", guys) until she was entirely healed. She was quite the study, her body held mortally wounding injuries that might have killed another demon, but instead of letting herself die she put her all into healing herself.  
  
Rin had been sitting on the other side of his guest room, waiting for his summons to say that she could see Kagome again, for hours. Sesshomaru imagined that she would sit there all night if she had to, when all of a sudden he felt a malicious evil source inside Kagome. His mind was made up instantaneously, Rin would NEVER come in here to see the chit if there was something that could harm Rin inside Kagome.  
  
HOURS LATER  
  
Kagome saw fuzzy outlines in front of her. "Glad you're finally able to understand what's going on around you, wench." Came a cool collected voice from her side. Startled, she fell on her side, thinking it was another voice to add to the barrage she'd had to listen to for hours on end it seemed. She was fairly certain there was something inside her now. It had grown from a creeping feeling, to more of a tangible animal. The more she heard the voices it seemed, the faster the alien thing grew inside her. It filled her mind with fear and trepidation as she thought of what it could be...  
  
When eyes cleared the fogginess out of them, she looked towards Him. "Sesshomaru." She said, frowning as her voice came out scratchy and horrid.  
  
Sesshomaru regarded her behind seemingly empty eyes. "What are you?" Rin's voice could be heard, muffled from the door, as she scratched trying to gain entrance into the room.  
  
He turned his head and frowned at the door. Kagome looked at him as if he had grown another head. "What do you mean 'what are you'?" Her voice held a faint note of hysteria.  
  
He sighed feeling he might have to be careful with her feelings lest she plow out of the room and blast Rin into the wall in her tirade. "You have another entity delving around in your body."  
  
"WHAT??" Kagome screamed. 


	12. All we do Crumbles to the Ground, Though

A Curse Can be a Miracle

Chapter 12

All We Do Crumbles to the Ground, Though We Refuse to See

Danie:... well you avid fans.. it's been almost two years?

Inu: uh yeah.. bitch.. left us hanging there and then didn't show up..

Danie: here we go.. I don't own any of the characters in here.. they are just altered to fit my screwed up imagination. The only characters I created were Akiko and Kaori.. oh and some of the monsters and demons.. not all of them though.. luv love

Miroku looked at his cursed hand. It was simply awful that he had not dealt with the frustration and hate he held for his father and grandfather before him.. for giving him this damnable void in his life which, sadly, could be translated as realistically or metaphorically. He had no love in his life, and he wouldn't have much of a life to give with the void in the picture. He had what, all of this year... maybe the next before it might become malignant? That was pretty depressing.

It had never entered his mind that he might not want to go on with the fight against Naraku until Kagome had let him touch her. It was horridly disappointing. He wasn't the great person he had thought he was. He didn't even want to regain his family's honor any longer, what kind of man did that make him now? If he loved Sango, how could he not want to go gallivanting in to save her younger brother and make her love him for all eternity afterwards? He was a miserable example of a man.. and he had never realized it until now. How could he ever pass on his genetic code to other women when he had these monsters hiding behind his every word? Hidden well enough that even he had not been able to figure himself out.

He could hear Sango walking behind him. Did she know about these horrible thoughts he had? Was it apparent to anyone else that he wasn't the kind of guy he appeared to be? What about Shippo? He was a demon. Could he smell the deceptiveness behind his words? The half-veiled hatred he held for his life. He felt a headache coming on behind his eyes as he stressed out about his predicaments.

Thoughts were getting to be too much for him to handle, he ran his hand through his hair dislodging the band keeping his hair together at the nape of his neck. He adjusted the pack at his shoulder and stared at the ground, fearful that if he were to look at any of his comrades, they would be able to read his thoughts.

Shippo clung to the back of Sango's neck. Kagome was the only family he had, and she had just deserted him like his father and mother before her. Was he so unlovable that even Kagome could not stand to be around him anymore? Yesterday when he had leapt at her, she had seemed all love and kisses... then he had gotten those horrible visions, making him relive his father's death and all those close calls with Kagome's own life that had scared him nearly witless. And to top it all off, she had left in the middle of the night when he was asleep. She didn't say 'goodbye' or 'I'll be back' or 'I love you' before she left either. They never did.

He held back the tears that threatened to spill over his cheeks. 'Never cry, Shippo. Men never shed their tears.' He could still recall the day Inu Yasha told him that. Besides that, if Sango saw or heard him crying they would be forced to stop their hunt for Kagome and he would be a burden once again. He would do anything to be as brave as Inu Yasha was. At least Kagome never overlooked him. Maybe she would pay more attention if he were more beefy or more reliable. He knew he couldn't do just as much as the dog demon just yet, but he was trying his best. He didn't feel like he had ever been terribly useful to the group. It was always one thing or another that made him cry and run to Kagome, effectively ruining any chance he had of ever seeming like a man. Inu Yasha never did like him and little wonder as well. There was nothing he did right. He couldn't even help out in the battles. His fox fire never did any harm to any of the enemies he tried it on. He could only do visual tricks and they weren't terribly effective half the time. Shippo was a grade A loser through and through.

Inu Yasha could feel the negative thoughts trying to penetrate his mind. Whenever Kagome had touched them something had come through her, using her contact as a conduit. He could look at Shippo or Miroku and tell that whatever it was had had little resistance to find the dirty sides of their lives and use it to their advantage. He had almost succumbed to the thoughts himself, but then he had realized that Kagome would never intentionally want to hurt any of them in that manner in all her life. In essence, the only other explanation was that the curse was actually a real curse and something was living inside Kagome's body.

Of course, this had to be just the crazy imaginings of his overactive mind, not wanting to give up the love he held for her, no matter how many hardships she forced him to face on her behalf. He bit his tongue to try to still all the negative thoughts, trying to worm out any idea of a demon that had been able to do that before. He was such an idiot to have not realized it before now too. So stupid stupid stupid... and now he ran the chance of losing her forever.

He looked back at Shippo and Sango. Apparently this mind disease could only travel from the host to the donor.. and not from donor to donor.. so how was he going to fix THIS? He raced on through the forest hoping he would not have to turn around to help pick up a depressed group of people. If Kirara were doing her job, he wouldn't have to worry about it too much. She would pick them up if there were any problem with any of them. Wouldn't she?

Sesshomaru looked over the sickly and disgusting mutant demon lying in his guest room. Her hair was matted to her head, her skin looked clammy and dead, her eyes when they were open looked crazed and mad.

However, Rin was dying to get inside, which was precisely why he was letting her linger outside for another half hour or so. He smiled to himself while "Kagome" swallowed the welcomed news he had given her but moments earlier.

He pondered the idea of holding a mirror up to her face to let her see the darkness feasting behind her eyes. Would she be able to see the evil now that she was part demon and not all pure as she used to be when in her human form? It was a very interesting idea and he was dying to try it out just to satisfy his curiosity, but he held himself in check waiting to see what her reply would be when she found out he was going to kick her out of his house now that she was all good and 'well'. He rubbed the bridge of his nose when he saw that she was sobbing. 'Great', he thought 'Now I get to deal with the water works.' He looked to the door. Rin could not come in with Kagome being as contagious as she was. Rin had enough evil things happen to her in her life. It would be cruel to expose her to this.

Turning to the ill woman he sneered, "Now that you're no longer a mass of broken bones and torn flesh, I expect you out of my house as soon as you can pull yourself together."

Kagome turned toward him; she reached out to grab his hand and remembered not to, just as he jerked his hand back. "What do you mean I have 'something' inside of me?" Panic started to well up inside her throat. "I didn't do anything!"

Sesshomaru stared at her. "Of course you did, you stupid woman. It couldn't have happened to you unless you had allowed it in. It feeds off of the negativity housed in your pathetic little mind." He paused as he scratched microscopic bits of lint off of his arm, "because of that you cannot stay in my house. I expect you out within the hour."

He turned and walked to the door, his tail swishing behind him. "Rin, I suggest you step away from the door before I hit you with it." He listened for the scurry of dirty little feet before he pushed the door forward and walked out, leaving Kagome to her misery.

She looked around her at the opulence of the room trying to stave off the thoughts she would have to deal with sooner or later.. preferably the latter of the two. No expense was left wanting. The room looked like it was fit for a king. It was fashioned of marble and granite, she thought. It must have taken years to get it to that perfection. The walls were rough-looking but smooth to the touch. She was lying on a bed of furs from various animals or demons. She moved the one that had been shielding her body only to see angry red welts lining her body in the places where she had been injured. They were going to leave the worst scars. Letting her hands rest on her breasts, she sighed. They were the only normal looking part of her body now. They were perfectly white and rounded. Her legs sported lightning streaks, one on her thigh the other on her calf and around her ankle. She could feel one lining her spine then shifting around to follow her rib cage. Kagome laughed a little as she thought of what she must look like. No beauty queen here anymore.

The doors burst open just then and in stormed a very angry looking Kouga. When his eyes lit on her, he stopped in his tracks. She pulled the cover up to her chin and waved her fingers at him.

"What did that little dog shit do to you now?" He burst out as he leapt to her side. He reached out to pull her into his arms but she shifted away. "So.. he really did claim you for his own then?"

"Do what?" Kagome looked at him in bewilderment. Apparently the blood scent wasn't as strong as she had always thought it was. Or Kouga was just being too concerned about other matters that weren't nearly as important. "Inu Yasha didn't do anything to me that I know of... why?"

Kouga eyed her as if he didn't believe her, then he pulled back the fur cover only to discover her battered broken body. "Shit!" He exclaimed as he took a step backwards. "Kagome, darling, what happened to you?"

Kagome sighed and turned her head away from him. "When Sesshomaru smells you inside his home, he's going to kick your ass." She pulled her hair around to cover the mark following her collar bone. "I fell off a cliff and Sesshomaru came, I'm guessing, and took me here to cure me. Trust me I look a lot better than I could have." She held out her hand for him to give her the cover back, hoping that his eyes had had their fill of her misery. Instead, he laid his hand in hers. She jerked her hand away, but not before she felt the crushing depression that sank into her soul from letting her own die. They were her pack and she had let them walk right into their deaths.

Kagome pressed her hands to her eyes, trying to obliterate the feelings and visions she was receiving.

Kouga sat in the floor, dazed. He touched his hand where it had met Kagome's. "That's what happened to me." Kagome muttered under her breath as she stood and walked past him. She stepped out into the hall and started to sniff for Sesshomaru's scent. She needed clothes before she could go.. and a bath would be terribly nice if he could be so bothered to it.

She closed her eyes so she wouldn't know where she was headed. She figured it was polite for him to be able to keep his house in some semblance of privacy. When she opened a door and knocked into him, she was grateful that she had hit him with the door and not herself. "Can I possibly get some clothes and a tub of clean water before I leave?" Sesshomaru scratched at his forehead in frustration. "Yes if you'll just get out of my home." He looked at her. His golden eyes pierced into hers and held her in place. "Do not move. I will be right back. I think it's needless to say, but don't touch anyone while I'm gone." She nodded and sat down in a chair in the corner waiting for him to come back. Crossing her arms to cover her exposed breasts for the time being; she looked around and played with her tail a bit. The room was just as magnificent as her own. He had a throne set up behind a table. No doubt taken from some minor lord he had murdered years back. Would Kouga come back to see her or would he turn tail and run away? It was more likely to her that he would leave as he was probably disgusted by her for now. There wasn't much she could do about her condition until she realized what was going on inside her own body. She could close her eyes and still feel the sweetness of being held by Inu Yasha's mother or the oblivion of fifty years under a different kind of curse. It was like drifting in and out of sleep.

Sesshomaru came and dropped her clothes on the floor. "The water is outside if you expect to bathe yourself." He stated as he left the room. She picked up the clothes and followed him as he led the way out of the house and to the bath. "When I shut this door, it will be locked and you will not enter my house again." The door slammed just as she turned to the bath. She could see the steam rising up from the surface. Sighing in gratification, she slid her body down into the tub. "Heaven." She groaned as she rolled around in the water. She took her nails and scrubbed her tail and her head trying to dislodge leaves and dirt that had been caked in there for days. Discovering that some of the redness wasn't just her scars, but was blood mixed with herbs and other medicinal things of value. If she weren't so tired of crying from her 'pity me' parties she might have cried for the sheer joy of feeling cleanly for a change.

Inu Yasha could smell her. She was nearby. Her blood was on the air, and every other demon in the vicinity had to smell it as well. He could not let her leave him again.

Danie: Well the chapters are going to be slightly shorter because I need to pace myself so I don't stop for a long period of time like before. Luv Love!


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